Welcome to Autonomous Parenting Online!
Autonomous Parenting is one part e-newsletter and one part web site. Our goal is to be parenting detectives, arming parents with as much information as possible about most aspects of Parenting. Our focus is on:
• news • safety recalls • educational options
• college choices • raising children • vaccinations
• providing parents with objective information so they can
make their own choices and become truly Autonomous.
Every week we will strive to bring you new articles and information about parenting. Check out the latest articles below.
Hearing the Gypsy Song – Traveling the World
by Susan Stiffelman
I suppose the story of the journey I took to Africa and beyond with my fifteen-year-old, Malibu-raised son, began well before we left.
It was a foggy Malibu morning, and my son Ari was still asleep as I read through the e-mails that came in overnight. Reading about the options—chimp sanctuary in Uganda, safari on the Serengeti, working at a school in Tanzania -- I was cozy and warm in my Tempurpedic bed, listening to the sounds of the morning in my comfortable Malibu world. The trash truck was outside, a few dogs were barking, the usual birds were chirping, and not much else. At that point, whenever I talked about packing it up and hitting the road for two-a-half months to travel the globe with my teenage boy, it was as though it were happening to someone else. I felt almost a curiosity, an interest in how this 40’s woman, very attached to her creature comforts and routines, thought she was going to handle leaving her comfortable life and wandering with her son around the world.
“Organic” By Every Other Name
• The term “organic” as the FDA uses it is not useful or meaningful
• The definition is the result of lobbying by agribusiness & other special interests
• Many people have allergies and sensitivities to everyday products
• There are companies that strive for a higher standard than the FDA standards
• Three of them are Eden Foods, Organic Sleep Products and ___ Cleaning Supplies
• Consumers are responsible for their own knowledge and protection
• Elected officials and bureaucrats will not protect you
• Websites for consumer information are http://www.organicconsumers.org,
www.cleanclothes.org and http://www.naturalingredient.org,
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The field of organics represents the cutting edge of intelligent consumer consciousness in the 21st century. People who are aware of the personally destructive effects of pesticides, chemical fertilizers and other invasive products upon them and their children, read labels, websites and other information available in order to make informed decisions. A person who experiences a severe allergic reaction or develops an autoimmune deficiency that might be caused by “polluted” food, clothing or cleaning supplies does not have to think twice about forming a hard-and-fast definition of the words “organic” “natural” “green” or other terms relating to wholesomeness in products.
How To Spend Your Summer Vacation --
Some Unusual “Camp” Ideas
Spring is in the air which means it is time to begin making serious plans about fun this Summer. There are a number of great “camp” ideas for your son or daughter to consider. They make it possible to have fun and do some interesting things as well.
The Richest Man in the World Has Some Advice for Us about College ...
(P.S. He didn’t take it himself)
by John Taylor Gatto
1. William Faulkner
On April 12, 2005, the August “New York Review of Books” pronounced William Faulkner “the most influential innovator in the annals of American fiction,” a man well-deserving of his Nobel Prize.
Faulkner, a high school dropout, was later able to enter the University of Mississippi on a special waiver for ex-WWI servicemen. After a single year there he dropped out with a ‘D’ in English. Between that time and his Nobel Prize he never returned to college.
What About Us? Renewing Your Marriage
by Erin Chianese
Homeschooling is so natural that it becomes a 24-hour job. Every opportunity can be educational and much parental time is taken up with these moments of learning with our kids. Homeschooling definitely brings families closer together. But often in our busy homes, marriage is the first thing to be put on hold and the last to get attention.
I took a parent education class when my kids were toddlers. The teacher tried to emphasize to us to take care of ourselves first, then our marriage, and lastly our children. She said we can more easily give to others if we are content and recharged by our own lives . . . great advice but the reality is that we take care of our children first, then ourselves, and finally our marriage, if there is any energy left. A marriage on the back burner can sit and wait for better times or it can burn.
Hepatitis B Vaccine: The Untold Story
Parents Question Forced Vaccination As Reports of Hepatitis B Vaccine Reactions Multiply
by Barbara Loe Fisher, author of DPT -- A Shot in the Dark
Hep B Vaccine Infant Deaths Reported In VAERS
..."For the first 13 days of his life, Nicholas was no different than any other baby. He ate well. When he slept, he slept well. He acted just like my first son acted when he came home from the hospital." Nicholas was given a hepatitis B shot at his regular check up at the pediatrician’s office on the 13th day of his life. His father said:
"That night when I got home from work, I noticed that Nicholas was crying a lot more than usual. In fact, he was screaming some of the time. He was acting differently, but because we had just taken him to the doctor for a checkup and they told us he was a big healthy boy, we thought everything was OK. When he was just acting fussy, like babies sometimes do, we didn’t know anything about vaccines or that they can cause problems for some babies."
"Nicholas cried on and off for most of the night. When I got up and went to work the next day, he was still crying on and off. He continued during most of the day and into the evening. The next morning, his mother found him dead in his crib. From the way he looked, he had been dead for several hours."
Factors in College Choice
By Donald Asher
[Author of Cool Colleges for the Hyper-Intelligent, Self-Directed,Late Blooming, and Just Plain Different and special guest speaker at numerous home school conferences.]
Everything important in my family's life took place at the kitchen table. This table was the focal point of my intellectual and social life at the time. It never occurred to me that this was an odd family trait; I assumed everyone lived like us.
When I was in high school, everyone in my family was in school. My mother and stepfather were in college, and my brothers and I were all in high school. It was an exciting home. Every day we would all come home from class and tell what we had learned or, more accurately, argue about what we had learned. These arguments took place around that kitchen table.
