Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
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Notes -
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.
Criticism, here. As a parent of two boys and a great admirer of many of those who post here, I feel compelled to try and ward you off the baser suggestions here involving unethical behavior designed to fast-track your kids. Unless you want to teach them by example that ethics/morality are simply tools to be either used for a purpose or discarded if they create an obstacle or moment of tedium.
I teach, as it happens, and I'm more and more aware of a need to generally guard my online identity so I won't go into detail, but when I catch students cheating one of my first thoughts is: Who raised you to do this? And I am not (quite) naive enough to think adults don't also cheat, in school, at work, in sports, wherever. A lot. And I am always disappointed.
Maybe, as someone here has written, it's true that all of university is "signaling." To me that seems a pretty juvenile take. And even if it's true, so what? There is, or I think there should be, such a thing as personal integrity, and that's something that can only be modelled, not taught.
My sobs (sons, that's a typo I will leave) are still young, preteen and new teen. The difficult, rebellious years are still ahead of us. And technology is no great friend to the conscientious parent. So I suppose they're works in progress and I don't even have the usual personal examples to offer up as evidence. And if you believe Pinker, peers seem to have more influence on kids' character-molding than parents' anyway.
Which leads to my ine bit if advice: Be aware of peer groups. And I don't mean that you ought rate them by social class or networking potential in later life when Becka is starting ballet lessons or applying to Vassar. Or whether they're of the right socioeconomic caliber. My own best friend of nearly 50 years came feom rough family, started in the military right out of high school, became a cop, and is now a welder, firmly situated in the working class. But he has raised a family, owns two homes, and is of such solid moral character and loyalty as a friend that I would die with him and for him if it came to it (or at least this is my conviction, who knows how I would react if we did, in fact, have to face the dragon together). And I suppose I can thank my parents for not chasing him off as an undesirable when we were kids. Maybe they saw something in him. Or maybe I got lucky.
There's no conclusion to this. I typed it with my phone with difficulty. Another voice, anyway.
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