Helicopter Parents and Snowflake Children: A Teacher’s Bitcoin Perspective

An elementary music teacher who discovered Bitcoin can see that the fiat system incentivizes poor parenting habits. This editorial is by Tim Niemeyer (co-host of Lincolnland Bitcoin Meetup)

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I am a teacher by day, and a passionate Bitcoiner at night. I love my job as a teacher of elementary music. It’s like being a co-host on Lincolnland Bitcoin. I get to share my passions, music and Bitcoin, and hopefully help others understand and appreciate each. I don’t believe in the orange pill at school. I believe it’s important to separate church from state. However, I have been able to experience both and has helped me to understand them better. Everyone has reasons for their actions. Who am I to argue with them? I believe that most parents are hardworking, honest people who do the best they can with what they have. It’s not their fault that they feel compelled to participate in a monetary system which steals their time and effort via inflation, which makes it difficult to take high-time preference actions. Many people don’t see the advantages that Bitcoiners see in sound money that isn’t controlled by the whims and incentives of those in power. Too few people realize that choosing to be right or left, or red or blue, doesn’t bring about long-term systemic change. This is due to the fact that each side has to follow their own system. Helicopter Parents

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One thing I have noticed over the past decade is the rise of helicopter parents. WebMD lists the following signs as helicopter parenting: They fight their children’s battles, do their schoolwork and coach their coaches. They keep their kids under control, have their own house, are too safe, and don’t allow their kids to fail. These are all a result of living in a fiat economy. If you have a system that allows people to control the money supply, it can lead to them imposing their morals on said money supply. The result is a tug of war system in which each side offers to solve more and greater problems for their constituents, regardless of their intentions. This creates a paternal dynamic that favors the powerful over the powerless. They “coach” their coaches by imposing additional workplace requirements. They “keep their children on a tight leash” by constantly trying to limit freedoms. They don’t let their children fail by providing too many safety nets. This leads to decreased healthy risk taking and increased complacency. The behavior of Big Daddy’s helicoptering becomes a learned behavior that the lower classes model for their children. This creates a vicious cycle in dependency.

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Helicopter parenting can lead to snowflake kids. Tifa Ong describes snowflake children as being overly sensitive, emotional, and entitled. My view on sensitive and emotional children is that they don’t have enough opportunities to face their own challenges and, at worst. They need to learn from their mistakes and make the habit of learning from them. It’s similar to when we prepare for a performance of music. Many students will talk about nerves and stagefright. My stock answer is that the only way to get over it is to do it over and over again until that feeling becomes familiar; the unfamiliarity of the feeling is the source of anxiety.Unfortunately, the students only spend a fraction of their time practicing failing forward. It is easy to see which students have taken risks and which have not. I believe that those who lack this skill set are the children whose parents are helicopter parents, or who have been more affected than others by systemic fiat externalities. Too many safeguards make it difficult for kids to take risks and become unwilling to do so. They feel entitled to all that life has to offer, without having to work for it. This sense of entitlement is a result of fiat’s unintended effects. It encourages grown adults to drink from the teats of the powerful. This leads to a hierarchy in which the top end expects the bottom to provide for them. This leaves children with no role models to teach them how to care for themselves. The result is a pattern that encourages learned helplessness. This is because we have allowed ourselves to be subordinated to the monetary system. One that doesn’t encourage moralistic hierarchies but rewards voluntary cooperation. If only…Proof Is in the Pudding

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In the five years I have spent in Bitcoin, I have seen a significant shift in my parenting style. Truth be told, I was a helicopter parent during my children’s formative years. Although I wasn’t as far off the spectrum as others, I was still susceptible to many of these characteristics. I was quick to fight my children’s battles, keep them under control, and not let them fail. But that all changed when we started studying Bitcoin (notice, I didn’t say “buying bitcoin”. I realized the benefits of allowing my children the chance to learn from their mistakes. It wasn’t just about how they feel in the present but how they would cope with future struggles if they had the opportunity to experience conflict… provided that there was adequate support. I developed a greater sense of control over my autonomy which allowed me to be a role model for my children. This is a far better option than following a set of instructions, which can lead to dependency on a disconnected democracy. All participants can opt out of the nonsense to which they have become accustomed by Bitcoin. Bitcoin encourages us to work hard towards long-term goals and respect each other’s self sovereignty. It also allows us to take calculated risks and normalize our effort in the face potential failure. Bitcoin encourages rationality and logical thinking, and disincentivizes emotionality and oversensitivity. Bitcoin eliminates the notion of entitlement by encouraging people to choose to live in a system that values value over time and value-for-value. While there are many factors that influence all of this, money touches every part of society. Bitcoin’s lifestyle is better for self-actualization. This guest post is by Tim Niemeyer. These opinions are not necessarily those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.