This is one thing I've always wondered about, and I just decided to make a topic, rather than derailing a bunch of other ones. >.>

For people who have raised raw children, HOW do you do it? I'm very interested in unassisted birthing. Homeschooling also seems so much better than public or private schooling, but how do you manage to keep the children socially well-rounded? How do they get that good old recess with a bunch of kids kind of interaction and development? (Or is that question equivalent to, "Where do they get their protein?" What about things like friends' birthday parties and Halloween with the raw food situation? How do you teach children to make good choices without throwing up barriers between themselves and others? I'd have to be a stay-at-home mom for sure.

Being raw can be tough as an adult, and sometimes the best we can do for ourselves is deflect people with decidedly negative intentions; how does everyone manage with their children?

And of course, there are PLENTY of positives--I can't imagine how many more there would be to be fed as nature wanted from birth!

I'm 22, so I have a few years to prepare, to say the least. I used to never want to think about kids, due to some experiences from my own childhood, but the raw has brought about so many positive inner transformations--and now I have all of these little hypothetical scenarios playing out in my mind.

Raw parents share all, please (even some recommended reading would be great)!

I'd really recommend the Anastasia series - [www.ringingcedars.com] There is a lot of information in those books about the best (most natural) way to bring up children.

The Breakthrough DVD (Storm and Jinjee) has some good ideas I think.

There is a UK based magazine called The Mother [www.themothermagazine.co.uk] which is full of information about natural childrearing.

As I don't yet have children of my own I'll leave this as just links to others rather than give my opinions

Rob

--
Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]

Hi Phantom, We moved from Houston, Texas to rural Louisiana 11 years ago. We only had our first child who was one at the time, now we have three. I was concerned about socialization at the time. I shouldn't have been. We tried different things and when one opportunity didn't work out another came along. A play group was really great for awhile. Necessity discovers recourses. One kid is in homeschool chess club. We see another homeschooling family that live down the street at least once a week for dinner and games or a movie. We still make quite a few trips to Houston and the kids play endlessly with cousins and friends. We live in the country with lots of animals and they usually only have each other and their imaginations most days which seems natural. Some of their friends eat really healthy vegetarian and some are SAD. Just like some go to school and some homeschool. We approach our diet with the knowledge that what we are eating is healthy and others choose their diet for many reasons, sometimes for health and sometimes that is all they know and don't want to change it. Texas and Louisiana are very unhealthy and obese states and that is easy to see whenever we go out. Going high raw (about 90 %) was hard the first year for my six year old. She was five when we started. She is not struggling much at all anymore. Consistency is key. It would be so much easier if we had done this from birth. I haven't forbidden any food to them that they are not sensitive (allergic) to. They can have any food in extreme moderation. We stayed at my sister's this weekend and we were going to my six y-o's best friend's birthday party. My sister was having Bagels and she wanted one. I told her she could have either the bagel or a piece of birthday cake. She chose the bagel but regretted it later. The bagel gave her diarrhea on top of it all. She said she will never eat a bagel again. There was bowling alley pizza at the party but my kids ate raisins and apples and didn't mention the pizza but also didn't go over to where it was. I hope this gave you a little insight. I think your attitude has everything to do with your success. Even though it is a little challenging at times all our choices have made our lives so much less stressful and certainly less challenging than dealing with viruses (the kids never get sick anymore) or teachers (punishing kids for not coloring in the lines) and all that goes with mainstream life and the kids see this.

Hi phantom :-) I only have one child--a son named Quantum who is 12 months old. So, I can't give you too much insight, but I'll see what I can contribute. I had an unassisted birth with him...it felt incredibly natural and healthy (much like eating raw) I posted about it recently on another thread...it's titled "Pregnancy" in case you want to go check it out. Some great websites for that is www.unassistedchildbirth.com (definitely numero uno--has tons of wisdom, help with preparation and such), www.unhinderedliving.com (has a section on birth) and www.mothering.com/discussions has a forum specifically for unassisted birth, which was a fantabulous resource for me when I was pregnant.

As for homeschooling, we're planning on unschooling. Not sure if you've heard of that...it's basically unstructured homeschooling. We go with the flow, see what he enjoys learning and in what ways. Homeschooling in our state (Washington) is pretty laid back so we can basically teach him whatever we want, when we want. Unschooling is big on hands-on learning since experience is by far the best teacher. Hopefully he'll enjoy traveling and seeing new places since his father and I love to do that Anyway, if you google "unschooling" I'm sure you'll find a lot of info, if you so desire.

As for socialization, I think, as a whole, our society puts way too much emphasis on that. Every child is different when it comes to how much and in what ways they want to socialize, so we're going to play it by ear and see what he's interested in. Children are very good at letting adults know what they want and how much of it they prefer.

blue butterfly

that is cool u named your son QUANTUM

hah.. what a great name!

Hi blue_butterfly, We Unschool too. We are considering getting a Waldorf curriculum for our (who will then be) 13 year old next fall. We are still not sure about that.

Great thoughts on socialization.

i had an amazing birth experience using hypnobirthing (http://www.hypnobirthing.com/), essentially DEEP relaxation that allows you to get out of your body's way and let it do its natural, birthing thing. i did not experience pain during the birth of my daughter, merely rolling waves of intensity. it was awesome!

Thank you everyone for all the information! Looks like I'll be reading for a while, but that's alright... =)

both births were unassisted, the second one was me alone until my 6 y/o woke up, then he cheered me on for the last hour. i was absolutely positive that that was right for me, everything else felt totally invasive and unnatural. while i respect midwives, i don't want them anywhere near me when i am giving birth!

as for raw, it's very challenging to keep a high percentage of raw going all the time. he takes his lunches to school and i have a large family that we visit with often. i aim for lots of raw and don't stress about the rest. we are very healthy and my son is aware of what that means and why. he's super interested in his own good health in a very positive way. it's great.

la_veronique--hehe thank you :-) We didn't have a choice in the matter...we kept experiencing synchronicities with the name Quantum while I was pregnant with him...we knew it was him letting us know what he wanted to be called

pakd4fun--How is the unschooling working out? We've considered Waldorf as well...we'll definitely give him that option, but we have a feeling he's more of an unschool kid.

Unschooling is great. Music is a huge part of our 12 year old's education and time. Her interest are so varied and she reads constantly. My problem with a curriculum is that she already doesn't seem to have enough hours in the day. There are some concerns that she is not learning all that she may need to know for wherever life takes her. We go back and forth on that. Deep down I feel like when they are interested in something they will do/learn what they need to in order to accomplish whatever that is. The motivation will be theirs. She is interested in trying Waldorf though. She is interested in more structure.

I get happy when reading such cool stories of happy birth experiences. The way my two lovelies came into the world was pure horror to me, because I did not have the guts to say NO to be treated like a piece of meat.
Nowadays I want to be a cautionary tale of how things should not work in maternity care, in fact you should think twice if you want to be a part of this "maternity care".
More than ever I realize that only we know our bodies and we should not believe someone else knows better what we need.

I suppose I could be classified as a raw parent. Don't know what to say though ha ha.

Gosia


RawGosia channel
RawGosia streams

pakd4fun sounds a lot like what i see myself continuing with in raising my son.

i have to admit that he does prefer our food to others because he always feels good eating our food, but he gets gassy, constipated, or otherwise disturbed by eating standard food. and he's the only kid i know who will try and usually like any fresh food.

as for schooling, i plan on using a homeschooling/unschooling method. the kid started potty-training at 16 months, and is totally potty-trained at 22 months. he cleans up voluntarily after himself, puts things in their place and loves to put out the recycling. This is crazy! I can't teach him these things. i have a lot of faith in curiousity and a drive to learn. especially with this guy. maybe my next will be different, but i'll adjust after i get to know him/her.

peace-