What do parents who choose to act consciously from these insights say about their experiences of parenting?

There was very much of a sense that the child was a person to be respected as their own person and by no means a blank slate. And that our role as parents was to help with the coming out, the sort of nurturing forth of the potential that was there.

I wanted to give a very strong sense of rhythm to each young child, a sense of rhythm to each day. I wanted to bring a real consciousness to the care I gave them.

We were trying not to create forbidden fruits. We wanted her to learn to see through these kind of things—Barbie—not just to see it the way we do, but to make her own way through things, so she can see for herself how things are.

I’m very sensitive, but my daughter doesn’t have to feel guilty about my sensitivity. I told her that it’s just that she is this beautiful soul who is evolving, and she’s going through this stage right now.

A child comes into life with an evolved soul and has to be respected. When we think of the child as being younger than we are, it can be seen as simply an accident of time. In actuality the child may be more evolved than we are.

I felt that honesty with myself was the key to providing a model of integrity that I could show to them. Compassion for other people was something that I hoped to give them as a value that they could carry forward within their lives.