EULA

You can do anything you want. Everyone can, and your children already know they can do whatever they want; it's not something you have to raise a child to understand. That's why respect is so important, for if everyone can do whatever they want, only respect will keep them from harming others.

Now I know you'll say, "You can't do anything you want, because many of those things are illegal." True, but what happens when no one is looking? How will your children behave when they know that they won't get caught?

What happens when your children move away and no longer have a leash around their necks? What happens when you stop giving them rewards?

Rewards can be very dangerous. This is something I've heard from psychologist before I started developing my parenting philosophy. Rewards are now thought to be one of the reasons why public schools are such shit. You do this, you get this. That will work as long as you give rewards. Once they go to junior high or high school where there won't be rewards, they won't do anything.

Take any activity a child enjoys like painting. Give them rewards like candy or recess time after they finish painting. After two or three months, stop giving them rewards. They will stop painting, even though they used to do it for the fun of it.

When you create systems of rewards, you start planting this question into your child's thought processes: "What's in it for me?"

As far as my freedom deal, remember that noises in quiet rooms appear louder. If you let your children do whatever they want, the few times that you do tell them to do something (e.g. don't play in the street, wear your seatbelt, brush your teeth), they will oblige. This dynamic is well known by my friends: We get in the car to go out to eat. They say, "Where do you want to go?" I rarely have a preference, so I rarely say where to go. The few times I do want to go someplace, I say, "Let's go to Wendy's." There is no question about where we will go to eat. I know this is a different situation, but it does apply to children.

edit: I think I said this before, but I'll say it again: permissive-authoritarian parenting is messy at first, but it does work. Also, this parenting method is only compatible with homeschooling. If you send your children to school, where they are tightly controlled for 7 hours, they will bring home the disrespect that was bestowed upon them at school.