To raise our children outside the grip of the fast-approaching digital identity system, we will soon need to step entirely out of the mainstream. This will mean opting out of the very rhythms that have come to define modern childhood: highly structured, constantly supervised, always online, and increasingly subject to tracking.
We will need to say no to school systems that require digital compliance. No to extracurriculars that demand biometric log-ins and real-time location sharing. No to sports teams that require digital IDs, data-linked wearables, or screen-based coordination. And no to community programs that sync with smart city platforms.
If this sounds dramatic now, it won’t for long, unfortunately. The groundwork is already being laid for this quiet and seamless form of spiritual capture, woven into apps, devices, school platforms, and digital credentials. Bit by bit, these tools are building the framework for a childhood shaped by constant surveillance, where their identity is “verified” by codes and their privacy becomes a thing of the past.
As the systems evolve, the only meaningful resistance will look like a family stepping back into an older rhythm. It will look like a parent choosing a harder road now in order to avoid an impossible one later.
We are at this threshold.
To preserve the sacred space of childhood, we must begin reorienting our lives in meaningful and, dare I say, dramatic ways now. Within the next three to five years, the ability to opt out will become far more difficult, as digital ID systems, smart infrastructure, and biometric requirements become embedded in everyday institutions. Waiting too long will mean making these choices under pressure, rather than with intention and the time required to pivot well.
Your resistance needs to start today at home.
“Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.” -Plato
This is great advice for nurturing your own children at home, but what happens when every form of amusement is engineered by strangers, packaged on flashy devices, and offered at the speed of dopamine?
The first step in returning to something more real with our children is slowing down. This is easier said than done, because our our packed calendars have become strangely comforting. Full schedules give us the illusion that we are productive, purposeful, and successful. But the full calendar is also what keeps us from seeing and experiencing the things that matter. It separates us from our children’s hearts, and keeps us from stillness, depth, and the sacred boredom where real creativity is born.
To resist the systems that are coming, we need time. Time to teach, listen, and live alongside our children in analog ways that build real capacity.
So, we can begin now by clearing space.
Cancel what is not essential. Say no to the third birthday party this weekend. Let go of the robotics camp, the swim team, and the double-booked music lessons. These things are noise. They are part of the cultural inertia that keeps us from noticing that we are being carried somewhere we do not want to go. Stop arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Get your house in order.
We must build households that are rich in real tools and poor in passive entertainment. We must stock our shelves with good books, and make an effort to collect hand tools, sewing machines, knitting needles, wood carving sets, and instruments. And we must learn to use them, alongside our children, because we are human… and alive… and art is a part of what we are truly made for.
Start weaning yourselves off of the screens now. Understand that most people (adults and children) are screen addicts. Tapper off gently while you can right now, so no one has to go into massive withdrawal later when a digital ID will be required to play video games with their friends or to access social media.
Teach your children to sew, build stuff in the back yard, write stories, and care for animals. Let them make mistakes. Let them feel the weight of real tools in their hands.
“People are fed by the food industry, which pays no attention to health, and are treated by the health industry, which pays no attention to food.” -Wendell Berry
We must not make the same mistake with our children’s minds and souls. We cannot outsource their formation to systems that do not see them as whole people.
This shift will not be easy.
The culture will not reward you for it.
It will likely even punish you.
People will not understand why you say no to school or the elite soccer league or the screen-based curriculum. They will not understand why your children are not on social media, or why they are often barefoot, dirt-covered, and slow to answer a text.
But your children will feel the difference in their bones over time. And when the world changes again (…we are feeling the shift in the wind already…), they will already be moving in a rhythm that honors their Divine design.
Don’t wait for a moment of crisis to begin this shift.
The speed of digitization is faster than most of us realize. The public face is glossy and exciting, but the back end is automated tracking, machine-readable identity, and data-fed algorithms that shape access and opportunity in the days to come.
You will not be able to keep one foot in the system and one foot out for long. The line will be drawn quickly, and with little warning, I believe. That is why now is the time to prepare your home.
We must cultivate inner strength, deepen our family bonds, renew connections with our neighbors, and recover practical skills. Our homes must become a kind of guild, where our children learn their crafts in the yards, kitchens, woods, and workshops of ordinary life.
Find the others. Form circles of families who are doing the same. Host simple dinners. Share your skills. Trade tools.
Sit around real fires… and just become sort of heroically ancient again.
Do it! Do it! Do it!
“The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.” -G. K. Chesterton
The future will be shaped by those who return to this truth both as a call to reignite Eden on the earth and as the only form of true resistance.
In the days ahead, it will be revolutionary to live simply. It will be counter-cultural to stay close to home, which will be the only true sanctuary for the human soul. It will be radical to raise your children without the approval of the machine.
But this is where real life unfolds.
It lives in the long, slow afternoon of baking something together, in the quiet hour of reading aloud, in the muddy garden rows, and in the simple, hands-on moments that light up a child’s real imagination.
Now, over the past year, my children and I set out on a small creative adventure.
We gathered their fun and thoughtful ideas and turned them into a book made for other children to enjoy. Inside you’ll find games, coloring pages, recipes, art tutorials, cut-outs, stories, play prompts, and fun facts about the world. Every picture is hand drawn by my kids, and every page was made with the hope that other kids would enjoy something more analog… that could be lingered with.
We weren’t entirely sure how it would go, and the project paused for a few “naps” along the way, but we stayed with it. And now, it’s ready to share!
Purchase your copy here.
If you have children between the ages of 6-13 who still delight in good old-fashioned, screen-free fun, we think this book will be a treat.
You can also visit our family bookstore to see this project and the others we’ve been working on. We’re so grateful to finally share this with you!
Also, a note on Shipping.
Shipping is high in Canada right now because our publisher is not mailing through Canada Post (due to the rolling strikes). This means private shipping is more expensive. We look forward to this resolving soon for our Canadian friends!
In the next couple of months it will also be available everywhere that you love to buy books, so that will create other shipping options as well.