What Are You Raising Them For?: All About 70s Hippie Parenting
by Tim Devin Author
A cool journey through the zines, magazines, books, and other underground parenting literature from the 1960s and 70s counterculture in the US. Tim looks at the decisions and situations that young parents were facing as they tried to break from the conservative traditions they had been raised in and teach their kids to embody their more free-spirited, radical values. From hippie baby names to nutrition to negotiating gender roles to figuring out alternative schools to handling child-rearing duties on a commune, this zine is a fascinating look at a time of drastic change and how that played out in a vitally important part of life that's often overlooked in history books.
Staff reviews:
(Taylor sez): Takes its title from a question hippie parents in the ‘70s often asked one another in regards to their kids. The zine is written around this premise, how to raise kids to be more empathetic, more aware, more green-friendly, how to prepare them to become full-fledged hippies themselves. I am not a parent, but I still see the value in publications like this. It encourages conversation and a rethinking of the way we do things today. I would recommend to all parents, prospective parents, or activists mapping out alternative lifestyles.
(Joe sez) And most basic and amazing is the advice to form deep relationships with other adults to make both children and parents happier. I appreciate the analysis that the self-imposed poverty that our parents raise us in creates feelings of guilt when we elevate ourselves out of it. I tend to draw the opposite conclusion as the author in each case or perhaps I just relate too much with the “other adult” that parents lean on. Perhaps as a result, I found a lot of merit in this zine. Even when I didn't agree with the author, it gave me something nice to chew on. I appreciate that the author disses the hippies for perpetuating the mainstream view of gender roles in the ‘70s.
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