What would children be "allowed" to do, as far as leaving home young and getting equal rights to their parents?

Question

I'm 14 years old and have believed in anarchy for about 4 years, my parents are both anarchists as well. I chose to be an anarchist of my own free will; however I'm very contradicted by the laws I’m restrained by. How my life, or even adolescences whose parents aren’t anarchist lives, change under complete and total anarchy? I understand this question may be vague, if more information is needed please just request and I will update it ASAP.

Comments

you're an anarchist, how do *you* think your life would be different in an anarchist context?
there are so many different kinds of societies that anarchists want to try out/explore, that a single answer is impossible. perhaps there would be bands of kids taking care of each other. perhaps there would be tribal scenarios with kids raised communally. perhaps there would be family structures similar to now (only more functional, presumably), or maybe something else would happen that i can't even imagine.
edit: (and my favorite... perhaps all of the above)

the question you ask is probably most interestingly a question for yourself, as a way to consider what you want to be aiming for in your life... perhaps you will share your own answer with us.

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To expand a bit on part of Dot's comment:
A lot of folks (especially on this site) wonder what some dimensions of life would be like in an anarchist society. I do think speculating about the possibilities of unruled life is a valuable pursuit. But in the end we really can't say with certainty.

That said, there are some aspects of life that are inconsistent with anarchy such as compulsory schooling and the family as a legal institution. These elements of contemporary society would by definition be absent from any anarchist society.

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Well I’m not quite positive how my life would differ, I’m sure I would leave my home right away but where I would go or what I would do make me wonder. I want to experience so many different things but being under the age of 18 has made that difficult. I think lives of families wouldn’t change much, kids would just be able to leave and parents would be able to hit their kids without worrying about the consequences. Anarchy just seems like such a better way of life, I hope I will live to experience anarchy one day or even be able to show my kids what anarchy would be like.

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btw molly, it would be better if you tagged your questions. this one in particular could be useful to people in the future who are looking for questions tagged children and/or parents, etc.

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the most important observation here is the lack of family as a legal institution. once you reach an age that you can walk talk and put food in your own mouth, your parents wouldn't be able to really enforce much on you at all. even the threat of kicking you out wouldn't hold so much weight if there weren't age of majority laws, and resources were locked behind jobs you generally need a certain age and degree of education to get. so even if the nuclear family persisted it would seem to me to be like any other relationship, transient and dissolvable.

in addition to this without tax or social incentives to have a nuclear family, other options, especially a tribe of sorts would probably happen organically imo.

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I love that molly's 20 now. I am so interested in what she would think of this question and it's answers.

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same, I commented on someones answer recently but I haven't seen them here in a long, long time, but hey, I pop in every couple years.

also hey, me and molly are the same age and she posted this while I was in private Christian kid prison.

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i don't use my so-called authority when relating to people of the age where supposedly it applies....this means not attempting to force them to do something based on that authority. it also means not referring to my non-coercion as "allowing"...which still implies authority (to "allow"). i want to relate to younger people in my life like i would anyone else where i don't "have authority".

this creates mostly enjoyable relationships with younger people....but not so much for me with their parents....especially those parents related to me by family! oh well....

yeah, i'd like to hear from molly again too....

and yeah....fucking compulsory schooling....where the seeds of authority and conformity take root big time.....grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Answer 1

In complete and total anarchy, there might not be the roles of parents
and children. There might just be Mel and Sam. There wouldn’t be any
expectations of Sam acting like mother or Mel acting like
daughter. There might be a community, and children might be free to
wander. Anarchists might treat children according to their abilities
instead of their ages, which should include knowing the limits of the
childrens’ abilities. If there was complete and total anarchy—no
police, no prisons—adolescents might live lives of projects
cooperation. There might be responsibilities: feeding yourselves, and
I think of that comedy sketch where someone has to decommission the
nuclear power plant. Maybe life could be fun, and games could be made
out of the chores. The thought of checking for a `children' topic on The
Anarchist Library also crossed my mind.