Preparing Children for a Post-Peak World by Bat-Tzion Benjaminson

Sharon February 22nd, 2008

Here are some parenting approaches I am trying as I endeavor with to prepare my children for a post peak world :

1.Refrain from buying them very many toys, and to refrain from entertaining them. My objective is to nuture self-reliant proactive thinkers of either the creative or the methodical sort, whose thought patterns and problem-solving abilities can boost their survival prospects as adults.

2. Help them get physically strong, coordinated, and confident

3. Give them food from the garden, not the store. Let them be constantly amazed at what they can get from the garden.

4. Share simple pleasures with them. Singing folk songs and Shabbat table songs to them is my main effort here. Sitting around the fire cooking food also gives them good memories of something they may not have a choice about one day in the future. If cooking by fire is done *voluntarily* and *with pleasure* then they won’t end up feeling negative if that is how they ultimately have to cook food.

5. Teach them to converse at the table. Table conversation arts are another one worth reviving, as they grow this will become more complex.

6. Cut back fight referee-ing
This is most effective on Shabbat when there is no computer to tempt them. (I need the computer for my work so it is on all the time).

7. Expose them to role models of valor and courage and help them view military skills as desirable. (that is what we just have to do here.)

After a few months of this deliberate “you are on your own to entertain yourselves” treatment, I see a remarkable improvement in their abilities to play imaginitively, and yes, they get down in the dust and the dirt and they find things to do. I pray for them to be protected from nasty creepy crawlies under the house and around the yard, so far so good, bli ayin hara.

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