The Solution

So, you want to raise a child who loves liberty.

That’s why you’re here. You want a happy child who will become a happy adult. You want your child to realize how special and magnificent and one-of-a-kind they are. You want to celebrate their achievements like graduations and life milestones. You want them to, one day, leave you and the home you built to venture out into the world on their own, equipped with all the abstract tools required to live life as a free person. The question remains, how? 

To raise free people, we must begin by acknowledging that our children come through us, but they do not belong to us. This point bears repeating. We are charged with caring for and loving the child, but the child is their own person, entity, body, mind, soul. They may share our facial features, but, try as you might, your child will doubtlessly evolve into someone with whom you share some similarities but far more differences. Why? Because our children are not ours. They belong to themselves. 

The first step to raising free people is to abandon this idea that your child is indebted to you for anything. You invited them here, to planet earth, and now it is your job to ensure that they emerge from your nest a global citizen passionate about liberty and ready to use the tools in their arsenal to make big moves in life. 

Once you have officially (perhaps painfully) divorced from the concept of child ownership in your home, you can start to set the scene for the household and life you want to model for your children. Children will mimic what they see. You are their first and most important teacher. Think deeply about what your child sees when they inevitably examine your patterns and choices. Are you showing them the fruits of a free life?

Which brings us to step two: model everything that you want to see. Instead of offering verbal corrections for table manners, try narrating yourself using the desired manners. You can say something like “Okay, now I’m putting my napkin in my lap.” This might feel foolish in the beginning, but it is a transformative exercise in the family. 

Once you have accepted that your children do not belong to you and you have committed to modeling what you want to see in return, you are ready to read through the rules in this book. They are both strict and flexible. They are strict in that they are requirements for raising a free person. They are flexible in that they allow adaptation to families with different sets of values and norms. It is my firm belief that any family can make the necessary changes to liberate their children and produce a generation of free people. We are at the turning point.