TCCMaven

http://www.tccmaven.com

Mainstream Continuum Parenting

It is possible to be a CC parent, a very GOOD CC parent, with very CC children who eat HoHos and shop at the mall. Of course, there are TCC E-mail list members who choose a much more alternative path for all of their life activities, but this is not, in my opinion, necessary or integral to living a cc lifestyle.

I enjoyed a very delightful visit with two families from the TCC list. There was a tremendous aura of deep respect and love. Activities and tasks were all done cooperatively and there was an easy flow. If the kids were around they were asked to do things, and if they weren't, they weren't hunted down. They ran in and out and disappeared into the trees together, sometimes taking the baby with them.

If I say "breakfast for 14 people," it sounds like a huge chore, but it wasn't. Neither was the laundry. Freshly dried loads of clothes appeared in the living room every hour or so and somehow folded themselves up and disappeared.

There was also much blow drying and makeup and putting on of trendy clothes, Doritos eaten from little snack bags, a group collapse in front of a large tv to watch a newly released video. Dairy, wheat products and cooked food were eaten (including take-out pizza).

I am living a CC lifestyle in mainstream America. I'm not doing it by isolating myself and my children and trying to live up to an idealized neo-Yequana granola image. It is a seamless part of my whole experience. I do not divide my activities and actions into "cc" and "mainstream". I don't think that wading in a creek is somehow more cc than swimming in a pool and I don't feel like a better mother at the creek. I don't think my children are having a more cc experience shaking a rainstick than they are when they are playing the piano, or an electric keyboard.