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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3597 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 4, 2022

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I'm interested in pushing the boundaries of what I can do in order to give my kid(s) a leg up in the future that may not be typical, strictly legal, or within the overton window of parenting.

The typical parenting strategies I already "get" and have plans for. Read early, go beyond school, foster the development of valuable hobbies and life skills, blah blah blah. My parents did a pretty good job IMO so I'm just really taking their formula and tweaking it.

I'm looking to optimize intelligence, SMV, athletic ability, and independence. Examples of things I'm considering but haven't done much research or fact-finding on:

  • Providing HGH at the optimal times to support height and muscle development.

  • Figuring out ways to accumulate wealth they can eventually access and avoid taxes.

  • Ways to give them maximum freedom of movement/flexible citizenship.

  • Ensuring they're guided away from porn/blue-pill sexuality guidance and (ideally) start off with more information on TECHNIQUE than I did. I think they'll figure this out themselves but I'm struggling to figure out how to do it without a profoundly weird conversation.

Put another way, I'm willing to take on risk to maximize long-term benefit for them, at what I think is a higher rate than the baseline parent. Off-the-wall thoughts and criticisms appreciated.

I would strongly advise against messing about with substances, because they're easy to fuck up and turn into massive side effects that derail your entire plan. However, a better diet can probably add a few inches; if you can get your kid eating liver on a regular basis, for example, it's likely that they'll get a bit taller and higher IQ in adulthood.

It's pretty well documented, I believe, how far ahead of their peers bright and well motivated kids can get if they're homeschooled. Obviously if you have kids you're wanting to be well ahead of their peers, public school(and the Catholic school system, as well) is going to be more interested in encouraging conformity with the rest of their class than in bringing them as far as they'll go, unless you manage to get them into a gifted and talented program.

In terms of freedom of movement/flexible citizenship, finding a way to get dual citizenship with the US/schengen area is probably option #1. If you're American and can't manage dual citizenship with a Schengen country, dual citizenship with Mexico(or another hispanic latin american country) will bring them a substantial part of the way there; Spain has special rules for immigration if you hold a passport issued by one of their former colonies. I'm unsure of if Portugal and Brazil have the same arrangement.

It's pretty well documented, I believe, how far ahead of their peers bright and well motivated kids can get if they're homeschooled. Obviously if you have kids you're wanting to be well ahead of their peers, public school(and the Catholic school system, as well) is going to be more interested in encouraging conformity with the rest of their class than in bringing them as far as they'll go, unless you manage to get them into a gifted and talented program.

I agree with this. Unfortunately, my spouse isn't onboard. She went to Catholic school. If I'm being honest, I also don't think that she's got much of a teaching bone.

I suppose I don't see how this would be feasible if I'm the sole breadwinner and I'm also trying to make headway in things like high quality networking and creating inheritable status. I'm doing well on those, but I really only have the opportunity to take my kids working out with me and helping with yard work - I can't be running classes too.

So then your best option would be either a gifted and talented program or pulling them from school after they’ve passed a GED to go through the community college system(in Texas, at least, there are special programs for this that allow kids who do this to also earn a high school diploma. Not sure about other states.)

if you can get your kid eating liver on a regular basis, for example, it's likely that they'll get a bit taller and higher IQ in adulthood.

Huh. I'd never heard of this before (or of any substantial nutritional effect on height other than from calories and calcium, for that matter), but apparently Vitamin A has a decent effect size. On a quick skim it looks like studies are hinting at Vitamin A deficiency being a solvable problem (the effects are seen in poor/malnourished/stunted kids, are seasonal, etc) rather than supernormal Vitamin A levels giving a boost, but maybe a deeper dig would find that too...

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