By Julie Behnken
When I talk about “Waldorf-inspired parenting,” I’m drawing on the ideas of Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian philosopher who founded Waldorf education. The name comes from 1919, when Emil Molt, manager of the Waldorf-Astoria Cigarette Factory in Stuttgart, asked Steiner to create a new kind of school for his own child and the children of his workers. Europe was reeling after the First World War, and Waldorf education was born out of a longing for healing.
I came to this approach as both a parent and a former early childhood teacher, and I’ve found that Steiner’s insights about teaching apply just as deeply at home. So do the practical developmental ideas of Emmi Pikler and Magda Gerber, which are often woven into Waldorf early childhood training.
Why it matters now
You are your child’s first teacher and the most important person in their life. And our world today needs healing.
So much of modern parenting has become pressured and frazzled, overwhelming and overstimulating. We’re tethered to our phones, where ugliness, negativity, and competing “truths” are hard to escape, yet we often feel disconnected from real relationships, care, and support. That’s true for children and parents alike.
So where do we find a foundation for healthy child development and thriving families in a changing world? Waldorf-inspired parenting offers several places to begin.
A spiritual view of the human being
Waldorf education begins with the understanding that each child is more than a physical body. In this view, we are spiritual souls who choose to be born at a particular time, to our chosen parents, bringing gifts from the spiritual world and gradually “incarnating” into the physical body.
Steiner described the human being as threefold, made up of body, soul, and spirit, developing through the forces of willing, feeling, and thinking.
What you can do as a parent
Do the inner work. Who you are matters more than what you say. Children learn through imitation, and they strive to be worthy of what they imitate.
Connect with respect. Do things with your child rather than to them. Diaper changes, feedings, and baths are all chances for meaningful connection, with your child participating in whatever ways they can.
Slow down. Observe. Give your child time.
What children need to thrive
Protection for their open, unfiltered senses, including consciously limited media exposure
Freedom of movement and uninterrupted time to play and simply be, even as newborns
Open-ended, imaginative toys
A living connection to nature
Love, warmth, authenticity, beauty, goodness, and truth
A gentler way forward
When we allow our child’s experience of earthly life to unfold gently and naturally, we build a solid, connected relationship with them. They can more easily grow into the unique soul they came here to be, and our parenting becomes more embodied, with ease, intention, and flow.
When we change the way we parent children, we change the world.
Note: This post originally appeared as a guest blog post — Waldorf-inspired Parenting to Change the World — on Stefanie Fernandes’ website, accompanying our podcast conversation on “raw and real with Stefanie Fernandes.”"
