Stoicism and Parenting (Stoic Mums and Dads)

I have a seven year old daughter and since she was born I’ve been interested in how Stoicism relates to parenting.  People sometimes ask me if there’s anything “out there” on Stoicism for parents.  There are a growing number of resources online so I thought it was time to do a blog post listing some of them in one place, for convenience.  Please let me know of any articles or other resources that I’ve missed and I’ll try to add them to this post!

First, though, I thought I’d say a little bit about kids’ books…  Poppy is only seven but we discuss philosophy a lot.  She loves the Percy Jackson movies and so I’ve told her lots of stories about Greek mythology.  There are lots of great kids’ books available.  She particularly likes the Early Myths series by Simon Spence.   Her favourite Greek legends are about Hercules and she’s heard them hundreds of times!

Talking about Greek myths led to stories about Greek philosophers.  Most of the best anecdotes are about Diogenes the Cynic (not all suitable for kids!) and Socrates.  There are some great kids books available on Diogenes (Poppy calls him “the Dog”) and Socrates by M.D. Usher.  There’s also a great series of books for small children called Little Stoics.  Poppy watches Kids YouTube and she told me one day that she wanted to make her own videos.  So we started doing some book reviews.  She’s done videos on Diogenes by M.D. Usher and the Little Stoics series.  We’re hoping to do another soon on M.D. Usher’s Wise Guy, about Socrates.

For adults, there’s Brittany Polat’s recent Tranquillity Parenting, which draws on Stoic philosophy.

Articles / Video / Podcasts

Here are some article from the Modern Stoicism blog Stoicism Today:

• Musonius Rufus’ Nurturing Stoic Family or Plato’s Guardian Automatons? by Leah Goldrick
• Stoic Parenting in the Age of Distraction by Meredith Kunz
• Stoic Parenting: Praise the Process by Matt Van Natta
• Stoicism for Coping with Toddlers by Chris Lowe
• Happy Families: A Stoic Guide to Family Relationships by Brittany Polat
• Stoic Parenthood: Fertile Ground for Eudaimonia by Leah Goldrick
• Video:Stoicon-x Toronto 2017 Talk on Stoicism and Parenting by Chris Lowe

Some more articles from the web:

• Stoic Parenting: Keeping Perspective by Matt Van Natta
• Cardinal Rules for Stoic Parenting by
• Parenting Advice from the Stoics by Patrick Allan
• How Stoic Parents Raise Boys to Understand their Emotions by Joshua David Stein
• Audio: Message from a Lifetime Stoic from Sunday Stoic
• Book: Living Well: An Ethics Guide for Adolescents and Adults by Andrew Piekarski contains references to Stoicism
• Video: Stoicism and Virtue in Family Culture with Brittany Polat and Leah Goldrick

One of Xenophon’s Socratic dialogues has Socrates talking to his eldest son Lamprocles about his relationship with his mother.  I wrote an article analyzing the philosophical content from a Stoic perspective.

Parenting: What Socrates Said

People often ask about Marcus Aurelius’ relationship with his son Commodus, so I wrote a fairly detailed article discussing this from a historical perspective.

Why did Marcus Aurelius Allow Commodus to Succeed Him?

Groups and Blogs

• There’s a Facebook discussion group for Stoic Parents.
• Meredith Kunz has a blog called Stoic Mom.
• Someone has a blog called A Stoic Dad.
• Chris Lowe has some articles about parenting on his Stoic by Design blog.
• The Apparent Stoic blog has articles about Stoic parenting.