Mom Of 4 Allows Kids To Go Barefoot In Public, Drink Coffee, Eat Sand & More That 'Others Don't Agree With'

Nov 28, 2022 by apost team

Parenting is both rewarding and difficult, and most parents can attest to the fact that it's not a part-time job. It requires a person to dedicate their lives to nurturing and supporting a child to bring them up the best way they see fit. 

There are a vast number of ways to parent a child and depending on which school of thought you follow, certain approaches have been deemed controversial. One woman named Mara Doemland, 29, chooses to parent her own unique way but it hasn't come without criticism. 

The mother of four shares her parenting journey on social media and two videos she posted in October 2022 went viral for all the wrong reasons. The first video was titled, "Things I do as a parent that others don't agree with," and revealed a list of things she lets her kids do. These include drinking coffee, walking barefoot in public, letting her son wear dresses and her daughter shave her hair off, having outside showers in the rain, letting her toddler eat sand and play with marbles, and not forcing them to share or restrict their food. 

Depending on one's parenting style, the exhaustive list may be very controversial or not at all. But it did get people talking. Doemland's video has been viewed over 6.5 million times and was so popular she decided to do a follow-up video sharing more things that others might not agree with.

In the second video posted two days later, Doemland added to the list: "gentle parenting, not spanking kids," not forcing them to hug family members, letting them eat sticks, letting her son get his ears pierced, co-sleeping from birth, breastfeeding until they self wean and allowing them to go barefoot in bathrooms. Doemland's second video was viewed over 400,000 times and brought her unique approach to parenting into question.

Doemland — whose children include Emmy, 9, Murphy, 7, Ripley, 5 and Indy, 2 — spoke to The Mirror and explained she doesn't want her children "to be restricted." As for her controversial parenting rules, Doemland had this to say:

"I let my kids go barefoot if they want unless the pavement is too hot. Emmy and Indy love to be barefoot. I let them drink coffee if they want to try it but they don't drink it like adults do. They're not doing shots of espresso all day."

She continued:

"When it rains, I make sure we all get out in it and just have fun. It's freeing but it is a mess."

The mother-of-four built up her unique approach to "free range" parenting over time and revealed she was much stricter when she first had Emmy at the age of 19. But over time she decided to let her children make their own choices. By not restricting what food they eat, they won't "have a negative relationship with food," Doemland said. It also stopped them from having sweet cravings.

Doemland and her partner, 36-year-old Christopher Mareth also allow their children wear what they want, which has resulted in their sons wearing dresses and their daughter shaving her head, because "it's what they like."

Another important aspect of her parenting style is not forcing her kids to share if they don't want to. She's even taught her brood phrases like "give me space."

Doemland's approach to having her kids learn by their own mistakes, such as eating sand, serves a greater purpose — "so they can work (it) out for themselves that it's not something to eat." She elaborated:

"They'll spit it out again and say 'yucky.' They’ll probably do it a few times before they learn. I'd rather they learn rather than be fearful and scared of it."

apost.com

What are your thoughts on Mara Doenland's "free range" parenting style? What are some unconventional parenting methods you've used? Let us know, then pass this on so others can weigh in too.