This Family Wants to Be Self-Sufficient—by Crowdfunding £100,000
This Family Wants to Be Self-Sufficient — by Crowdfunding £100,000
So if you read Slate, you might have seen this article about an “unconventional” family who is crowdfunding £100,000 so they can live off-the-grid in Costa Rica:
These Parents Want to Raise Their Children “Off-Grid,” So They’re Asking You for $100,000
I have to quibble with Slate’s headline because they’re not asking for $100,000; they’re asking for £100,000, which converts to $131,194.50.
As of this writing, the Allens have successfully crowdfunded £145.
Help us achieve our ambition of being self sufficient!
Now I get to quibble with the Allens’ headline, because “help us achieve our ambition of being self sufficient [by giving us enough money that we don’t need jobs]” is… well, it’s missing a hyphen between self and sufficient, and it’s also missing a bit of self-awareness.
It gets better, and I’m not referring to that video Slate shared where the family appears on ITV’s This Morning and their unconventional daughter pees on the studio floor.
Because that isn’t really the daughter’s fault, she is literally a year old, and accidents happen. This time they happen to be happening while the daughter is positioned behind the words “no medicine, school, or rules.”
No, the most hilarious part of this story is that the Allens’ crowdfunding site offers one reward in exchange for the gift of self-sufficiency, they’re giving you an ebook, that’s cool, but they also include a website where you can learn more about their unconventional parenting, and here it is:
IT IS NOT THEIR WEBSITE. I will quote the site’s owner:
So recently a lady by the name of Adele Allen has been propelled into the public eye after announcing that she wants to raise £100,000 to move her family to Costa Rica. Adele and her partner yearn to live an ‘off-grid’ self-sufficient lifestyle with their two young children. They are, now very publicly, anti-vaccine, against traditional education and schools and they don’t use or believe in modern medicine. They give themselves and their choices labels such as alternative parenting, unconventional parenting and seem to favour terms like free range children.
Now this lady has chosen to go by the name of The Unconventional Parent, which as you know if you are reading this, is the name I chose to go by when I started this blog a few years back. I don’t mind her using the same name however she has accidentally published my website address on her fundraising page instead of her own and the fact that our Facebook pages have the exact same name has directed a lot of traffic to my page and site! A fair amount of those people have decided to continue following my blog despite it being a far cry from the one they intended to find. This is most complimentary, so thank you.
In light of this I have some issues I would like to address, hence the reason for this post.
The post continues, discussing the benefits of modern medicine and so on, and it is well worth a read.
I have no dog (or child) in the parenting wars, although I think that vaccines are great and a few well-placed rules can provide structure. I do have plenty of small animals in the “is this an appropriate crowdfunding project” skirmish, having both donated to and launched crowdfunding projects, and… yeah, nope. I would not donate to this.
I’d ask “would you,” but I have a feeling I already know the answer.
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