Children
Children

Yourself, your pair, your children — fix those three and you have a family. That’s the part that lives inside you.
Family is training wheels. It’s where a person learns to balance before riding off on their own.
And parenting needs less than you think. Minimum parenting. Don’t grind yourself down trying to engineer the perfect kid — they’ll turn out like you anyway, so the real work is on you.
Don’t raise your kids — they’ll turn out like you regardless. Work on yourself. — Stoyanov
Berne wrote a whole book on it: children replaying the parents’ script. You don’t hand them a script by lecturing — you hand it to them by being.
So aim low and aim right. You’ve done your job if:
- They can support themselves.
- They aren’t a social deviant.
- They don’t blame you for everything that’s wrong with their life.
And one more thing: don’t let them make you dislike them. Relax. You and the kids will be just fine.
The Reading List
Bare Minimum Parenting
The Ultimate Guide to Not Quite Ruining Your Child
Your kids will turn out fine whether or not you run yourself into the ground for them — so stop trying to raise a superkid and aim for a functional adult instead. Do less, worry less, and let them learn to support themselves.