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The Joy Is Not Optional - by Aella - Knowingless

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I grew up under a strict childrearing program called Growing Kids God’s Way, created by Gary Ezzo. It was popular in the 90’s, and had a series of books that kept getting released with tamer and tamer editions as people kept getting mad about it. My parents had one of the earliest ones. For the first half of my life, my only real friends were children who were also raised in GKGW. I was homeschooled along with a set of families who all also followed the program. The moms would have weekly meetups where they would go through the workbooks as the kids played. This insularity was important - a big part of GKGW was making sure your kids didn’t have exposure to corrupting influences. I went many years without ever witnessing a child being whiny or upset at an adult, besides occasional shocking instances of seeing stranger children throw tantrums in grocery stores. We weren’t allowed to watch media which depicted children being dissatisfied with adults, so this meant no Land Before Time or A

The Joy Is Not Optional The Growing Kids God's Way protocol Aella May 15, 2025 1,107 170 96 Share I grew up under a strict childrearing program called Growing Kids God’s Way, created by Gary Ezzo. It was popular in the 90’s, and had a series of books that kept getting released with tamer and tamer editions as people kept getting mad about it. My parents had one of the earliest ones. For the first half of my life, my only real friends were children who were also raised in GKGW. I was homeschooled along with a set of families who all also followed the program. The moms would have weekly meetups

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