A mum-of-four has revealed her unusual parenting techniques as she allows her children to live as they please with her permission to drink coffee, walk around barefoot and play outside in the rain. Mara Doemland, 28, from Texas, uses a mixture of controversial approaches to parenting as she encourages her children to be free thinkers and doesn't want them to ''be restricted'' in what they do.
The stay at home mother to Emmy, 9, Murphy, 7, Ripley, 5 and Indy, 2, often goes barefoot herself and encourages her kids to do the same, the Mirror reports. She also urges them to play outside in the rain and doesn't restrict the types of food they're consuming at meal times which she claims makes them more likely to opt for fruit and vegetables themselves.
Breaking gender stereotypes, Mara allowed her nine year old daughter Emmy to shave off all her hair and is also fine with her boys wearing pink dresses. Mara, from Corpus Christi, Texas, US, said: "I'm a barefoot person and have strong feet.
"I let my kids go barefoot if they want unless the pavement is too hot. Emmy and Indy love to be barefoot. I let them drink coffee if they want to try it but they don't drink it like adults do. They're not doing shots of espresso all day."
She continues: "When it rains, I make sure we all get out in it and just have fun. It's freeing but it is a mess."
Mara, who became a young mum at 19 after giving birth to her first born, Emmy, said she has gradually built up her own 'free range' style of parenting after becoming a more experienced mother taught her to allow her kids to make their own decisions. Mara, who says she used to be very strict, argues that her laid back parenting has reduced her kids' sugar cravings.
"I was mean and had no patience when I first had Emmy," she explained. "I don't agree with restricting food for my kids.
"I don't want them to have a negative relationship with food. I make sure all food is available for them which doesn’t categorise certain food as 'special' or a treat.
"It actually stops them craving sweet things if it is all available to them."
Mara and her partner, Christopher Mareth, 36, also urge their children to dress themselves how they want. "We want them to be comfortable and wear what makes them happy," Mara said.
"Emmy has her head shaved and is only wearing black and oversized clothes at the moment. We let our boys wear dresses if they want to. It's what they like."
Mara also does not believe in teaching her kids to share as she thinks it's important for them to have time to themselves playing if that's what they want to do. "If one of my kids is playing with something and another other wants to play too, we don't make them share if they don't want to," she added.
"We have taught them phrases such as ‘give me space.’ As adults we don't always want to share things so I don't think it's something that kids should have to do."
Mara also controversially lets her kids eat sand and play with marbles as she argues that they learn for themselves what they do and don't like the taste of. "Kids always put things in their mouth so I don't stop them eating sand so they can work out for themselves that it's not something to eat," she added.
"They'll spit it out again and say 'yucky'. They’ll probably do it a few times before they learn. I'd rather they learn rather than be fearful and scared of it."
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