75. How to Raise Countercultural Kids: Suzanne Venker

Need some support and validation for raising your kids counterculturally? If so, this is the podcast episode for you! My husband Bill and I are almost empty nesters, and every step of the way we took some sort of heat for parenting differently than the way other people did, beginning w our babies’ sleep schedules, to my staying home w them, to the television programs we'd let them watch, to limits on screen time, to not allowing underage drinking, to talking very openly about money and sex. It isn't easy to raise kids in a way that's different from the norm, nor is it always easy to set a good example for your kids. But it is absolutely, 100%, worth it. None of us can ensure our children will make good decisions once they leave the nest, but we can (and should) set them up well while we have them. IN THIS EPISODE: 6:50  Suzanne talks about her book “The Two-Income Trap,” why the early years of raising kids matter, and why “quality time” is a bogus idea 12:20  Building a bond with your children happens in the early years, which is why it is important to be home with them 15:25  Why a strict sleep schedule helps with disciplining children 18:15  Never treat your children as your “friend” and why that theme in modern parenting does NOT work 20:00  Kids crave to be safe and for the parents to be in control 21:15  Media is powerful. Watch what your kids take in. Raise your kids with entertainment that has substance, such as "old-school" TV with its timeless values, etc. 26:45  Use every opportunity to counteract social messaging in the media, movies, news and in school 31:25  Your kids do not have to travel all over the country to play sports **32:52 Why money and sex need to be discussed, including, teaching the differences between boys and girls. Of all the countercultural parenting strategies, this is most important.** **35:10  The trend is to raise boys and girls as though the are the same. There is no recognition for the fact that girls will eventually be the ones to have babies and boys will not—which means a woman's life trajectory will look very different from a man's** 40:20  Why talking to your kids about money, debt and finances is important and how this affects marriages/relationships in the long-term 42:25  You can go to college relatively debt-free by choosing a college you can afford. This message is not encouraged in the mainstream culture 45:40  It makes no sense to raise your daughters the same as boys 47:40  The more you raise your kids counter-culturally, the more successful they will be