The Middle House
Measuring your wealth in children and your power in generations
Blessed are those rich
in land and grandchildren and cash
Blessed are those rich
in grandchildren
One way of summarizing the family portion of the Steader project is that it sets the best practices guide for establishing a middle or working class generational extended family. A Middle House, if you will. A yeoman dynasty.
This is not to reject the aristocratic Great House model. Far from it. A Middle House should aspire to become a Great House if it can. The Middle House has precarities that the Great House does not.
But everything necessary to become a Middle House is necessary to become a Great House; no steps are wasted. A Great House that does not follow Middle House principles will never be a Great House at all.
And there are advantages to becoming a Middle House. It is easy. You can do it right now—you are probably already doing much of it.
Similarly, building the village can only help your Middle House project, especially at the crucial courtship stage. But a “village” that doesn’t consist of many long-term generational families is a flash in the pan.
We have a functioning Middle House ourselves, going on at least generation five, and we often field questions from our friends about it. That was the genesis of the family portion of the Steader project. (That’s not the only part of the Steader project—there’s also homestead agriculture, mystical natalism, and so on.) For example The First Ever Natalist Kids' Book
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Want to have a Middle House (or Great House)— the first step is usually just setting out to do it. Gone are the days when you could stumble on to it.
Large families. Shots on goal, identity reinforcing, and its hard to say family is important if you don’t splurge on it. Modeling is Hard, Family is Easy ; Naturally Grown Family Identity
Extended families. Cousins create memories. Extended Family
Household. Your home needs to be an economic and production unit, not just an emotional one. Hearth and Home
Primary production: close the production-consumption loop in a felt, physical way. Whistle while you Work
Felt reward. Have a spiritually, emotionally, and physically rewarding and enriching home experience. Be idyllic. Summertime
Take the merry pill. Be happy and jolly yourself. Take the Merry Pill
Identify formation. Your family needs to be a thing. You need to have an identity. Pickin’ Your Vibe
Culture drafting. Have the larger culture reinforce your family project. Name Your Girlchild Semiquincenta
But also cultural distance. Your relationship to the larger culture needs to be like the Amish to technology—you pick and choose. Be Wholesome, but don’t Be Disney
Faith
Thrift. Getting comfortable with thrift and making do is the one element of the Middle House that doesn’t translate to the Great House, but it is hard to do without i t. The Thousand Dollar Middle Class Wedding
Hang a lantern on your project
It’s easier than you think—God and nature are on your side. Teenagers are psyop. Human Colony Collapse Disorder; Live Like a Trust Fund Kid; Everyone Wants to Tell You Your Kids Won’t Make It
THE BARE ESSENTIALS
What is the Bare Minimum Needed for a Family Founder to Succeed?
