Raising Freethinkers

A Practical Guide for Parenting Beyond Belief

By: Dale McGowan, Molleen Matsumura, Amanda Metskas, Jan Devor

Narrated by: Denice Stradling

Praised by Newsweek as a "compelling read" and Library Journal as "accessible and down-to-earth", Dale McGowan’s Parenting Beyond Belief offered freethinking parents everywhere a compassionate introduction to raising caring, ethical children without religious guidance. Now, for the more than 40 million people in the United States who identify themselves as nonreligious, Raising Freethinkers offers solutions to the unique challenges secular parents face and provides specific answers to common questions, as well as over 100 activities for both parents and their children. This book covers every important topic nonreligious parents need to know to help their children with their own moral and intellectual development, including advice on religious-extended-family issues, death and life, secular celebrations, wondering and questioning, and more.

Complete with reviews of books, DVDs, curricula, educational toys, and online resources relevant to each chapter topic, Raising Freethinkers helps parents raise their children with confidence.

©2009 Dale McGowan (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

wonderful, practical advice

the chapter about death (pets) was perfect timing. I was on my way to and from the animal hospital with our family cat suffering from stage 4 chronic kidney failure and I was able to listen to this chapter during. great ways to approach the topic of pets passing with my 6 year old daughter.

A great place to start the journey of non-religious parenting

I found this book, very helpful in learning some of the topics that are necessary for our family as we begin the process of raising a child without religion, while at the same time, having the child be religiously literate.

The better way to be a parent.

Parents of no religion, or of a liberal religion, will find fun activities, insightful parenting advice, and resources to be better parents.

Great advice!!

I am so impressed with this book! It's exactly what I was looking for. The suggestions are easy to incorporate, the author explains why something works or doesn't...absolutely perfect for me and my family.

print or e-book would be a better experience.

good content for humanist parenting, but there are many references to visual lists and hyperlinks that don't convey audibly very well.

Wonderful listen for a former devout Mormon

The only downside is that I could swear this book is read by a robot—a robot with decent inflection—but a robot. If it’s not read by a robot then, oh my goodness, I’m sorry to whoever read this.

All in all, I was able to get over the robot sounding voice and enjoy the content, save for the occasional reminder that I was listening to a robot. Lol!

we laughed, we cried, we...

Amazing book. Touches on so many important subjects. I want to read it..again. A "what to expect when your expecting" for freethinkers. Highly recommend.

This book is outstanding! Wish I read it years ago. A MUST BUY!

I was skeptical in getting this book at first. Now I wish I would had this years ago. As a father picking up a parenting book it's not the easiest decision to make and takes time for going through reviews and having to do research. I can honestly say I'm completely satisfied and happy I've had the opportunity to have this book in my library. This book is excellent in so many ways that I will be purchasing it again and again to have on my shell as a hard copy for myself as well as giving them as gifts! An awesome book, even more awesome parenting book!

This is a must buy for any parent. No seriously, it is a HIGHLY recommended parenting book!

There has got to be a better way !

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Yes, I would NOT read off 100 different web sites. I would have them all as links in a pdf that was issued as auxiliary material to the audiobook, and then just have them referenced in that pdf. Instead of: "Eych Tee Tee Pee colon foward slash, forward slash, stupid dot org, forward slash, annoying, forward slash, got underscore, to, underscore, be, underscore, a, underscore, better, underscore, way, underscore, dot Eych Tee, Em, El.",

Instead it would just be: "Web Link number 16 in your pdf" and the flow of the reading would not come to a screeching halt.

Any additional comments?

Good subject, and good recommendations. Buy it in another format. I bet the Kindle version has active links.

Great book, but a bit confusing in audio

Any additional comments?

This audiobook stresses the importance of knowing the difference between religion knowledge and endoctrination. Atheists, agnostics, deists and even the less strict theists will find good advices on how to bring up a child without religion prejudices, that is, without seeing anything special about any religion, but at the same time respecting the believers as human beings. But as the author points out, respecting other people doesn't mean inconditional respect for their ideas, because ideas must earn one's respect.

It was a good listen, but I found it confusing sometimes. Since the book has many quotations and comments of other people's thoughts and works, it is difficult to follow who is being cited. The narrator's voice is great, but she might have explored more intonation changes to stress more clearly who is speaking at any given moment.