About Me

Who I am

I am a father who loves politics, history, philosophy, and spending time with my kids. I write software for a living and sometimes for fun! A couple of years ago, my wife and I started to get serious about developing family culture. We realized that we could either make decisions deliberately about how to raise our kids, get involved in the community, and spend time with each other or leave the decision making up to other people and circumstance.

After realizing we had more control than we previously thought, we embarked on a quest to capture the discussions we have around raising our kids into humans that will be a force for positive change in the world. The output of that effort is located under Family Culture in documents which outline our goals and guidelines for how and why we choose to focus our time and energy. I realize that the decisions we make may not fit or make sense to every person who visits this website. To provide context, I try and include key resources that shaped our thinking on the topic.

What I believe

Every parent’s journey is different and the needs of their children, partner, and family are unique.
Parenting constitutes an educational odyssey where perfection remains perpetually beyond reach. I believe that supporting other people who have chosen to dedicate their time and energy to instructing young people is essential to our survival. We must support through attentive presence, non-judgemental listening, and earnest empathy.

Humans are good.

Their needs are real.

We bear both the solemn responsibility and profound privilege of imparting essential skills that enable young humans to emerge as autonomous, contributive members of our collective species.

We inhabit an intricate system transcending the boundaries of self, family, and even humanity itself. The environmental context in which we exist molds our being just as surely as we shape it through our actions—a dialectical relationship demanding both awareness and respect.

How to reach out

If you have thoughts, questions, or something to share please reach out to me through the following channels:

My preferred method is Email: nmaynes at the pm.me domain.

I check Twitter/X infrequently @nathanmaynes