Ep. 42: The Civic Art of Parenting

In the final episode of their parenting series, hosts Laura Forcum and Lauren Hall recap conversations with Peter Gray, Darby Saxby, and Helen Roy, focusing on what it would mean to take care seriously in a culture that undervalues and genders care. They discuss how care has become siloed and often invisible through professionalization, regulation, and divided civic spaces, with COVID highlighting schools as major providers of childcare. They argue that weakened communal networks and heightened risk aversion reduce alloparenting, limit children’s practice navigating different rules, and contribute to passivity and reliance on authority. Linking self-knowledge, intuition, and agency to civic health, they emphasize cultivating agency through habits, discomfort, chores, and solitude, aiming for flourishing rather than comfort, and close by recommending prior episodes and sharing family milestones.00:00 Final Episode Setup01:37 Why Care Matters04:44 Punch the Monkey Lesson10:10 COVID Revealed Childcare12:18 Care in Public Spaces15:18 Small Town Responsibility17:29 Losing Care Skills21:03 Regulation Makes Help Hard24:58 Alloparenting and Risk27:09 Discipline and Flexibility32:58 Self Trust and Authority35:46 Judging Law as Citizens37:57 Intuition and Power39:37 Agency Against Authority43:49 Systems That Train Compliance46:21 Civic Solitude and Boredom49:22 Parenting for Values59:06 Flourishing Not Comfort01:01:11 Civic Mindset at Home01:02:46 Wrap Up and Gratitude This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wemadethispolitical.substack.com