Today I’m excited to dive into a topic that’s very dear to my heart as a mom: using Human Design as a parenting tool.
What is Human Design in Parenting?
Designed initially for guiding children, Human Design helps align your parenting approach with the unique energetic blueprints of your children.
In fact, back when the founder of Human Design (Ra Uru Hu) first channelled the system, he made it quite clear that Human Design is for the kids–and really, for the parents of those kids. This system can help us raise our children in alignment with who they came here to be and with how they’re designed to energetically function.
My Personal Journey with Human Design as a Parent
For context, I’m a mother to a 4-year-old who is a 1/4 Emotional Manifestor, while I’m a 4/1 Self-Projected Projector. We do have quite a few similarities in our Design, but we also have a lot of differences. For reference, my partner is a 2/4 Sacral Mani-Gen.
As you can see, we have a good mix of Designs in our home, which leads to some interesting family dynamics. Understanding each of our unique Designs has helped me appreciate our individual strengths and also address different challenges within our family. It’s been revolutionary for my life as a mom, and the way I parent, nurture, and interact with my daughter.
So, How Do You Use Human Design as a Parenting Tool?
Number one – Explore and understand your own Human Design.
Knowing your strengths and challenges based on your Design can help you create a supportive environment for both yourself and your child. When you identify your strengths, you can harness and capitalize on those gifts as a parent.
Not to mention you’ll have a much better understanding of any potential challenges you may face along the way, and therefore can better prepare and support yourself in those areas.
For instance, as a 4/1 Self-Projected Projector, I have limited physical energy. I need more rest and downtime than the average person does. Because of this, I’ve adapted my parenting style and added more support for myself in this area. For example, I often ask my partner to do the more “physical” things with our daughter (e.g., playing on the floor, going to the park, etc.)
In saying this, because I have so much openness in my Human Design, one of my strengths is being able to absorb and amplify my daughters’ energy in many ways—including her emotions.
Yes, this can be quite intense sometimes, especially with a young child because they have a lot of emotional swings. But it also gives me this instant insight into what she’s feeling, allowing me to react accordingly.
So that’s the first step… understanding your own design. Next up –
Number two – Understanding your child’s Human Design
After understanding your own design, it’s time to look into your child’s Human Design. And starting with the basics is key here.
I’m talking about things like their Type, Strategy, and perhaps Authority as well. These will offer you incredible insights into their personality and their interaction style, which can help you understand how to better tailor your parenting approach to your individual child/ren.
Understanding your child’s Type and Strategy gives you insights into things like their energetic signature, some of their gifts and challenges, plus how they’re meant to interact with other people and the world around them.
Understanding your child’s Authority, on the other hand, will help you understand how they’re meant to make decisions. Specifically, by relying on the wisdom of their body over the voice of their mind.
Exploring Your Child’s Human Design
Now that you understand the benefits of learning more about your child/ren’s unique Human Design, let’s explore the different gifts, strengths, potential challenges, and Strategy of each Type.
Manifestor Children
- Manifestors are natural leaders and initiators. They don’t need to wait for anything outside of themselves before they initiate something.
- They have strong creative urges that compel them to create or do something specific. They’re meant to honor and act on these urges.
- All Manifestors have an undefined Sacral Center, which means they have inconsistent access to life-force energy. Therefore, don’t expect your Manifestor children to be energized all day, every day!
- They also have this “lone wolf” quality where they likely really enjoy independence and may prefer playing, creating, or working alone at times.
- Teach your Manifestor children to inform those around them of their plans. This is the Manifestor Strategy, and it’s not about asking for permission but simply communicating when they have an idea/urge/inspiration they’re going to act on.
Generator Children
- All Generators, by default, have a defined Sacral Center, which means they have consistent access to creative life-force energy. However, this is only if they are living in alignment and following the yes/no response of their Sacral Center!
- Helping your child practice noticing and honoring the visceral gut feeling they get that’s either an “uh-huh” (yes) or “uhn-uh” (no) response. This is their decision-making tool.
- Because Generators have a defined Sacral Center, they’re actually meant to use up all of their energy each day. So if they have a bunch of energy to get out of their system before bed, encourage them to! Allowing them to exhaust their energy daily will help them have a more restful sleep (and hopefully, you will too!)
Manifesting-Generator Children
- A sub-type of the Generator, Manifesting-Generators are quite similar to Generators in many ways.
- They experience the Sacral Response and therefore have consistent access to that life-force energy. They’re also meant to use up their energy each day before bed (just like Generators). However, there are a few differences…
- Manifesting-Generator children are more likely to change their minds seemingly “last minute” about things. What’s actually happening here is that their Sacral (aka their gut) initially said yes to something but is now saying no to something. They need to trust that!
- Now, I know you can’t always allow your child to change their mind about certain things, especially if there are other people involved. But where possible, give them that space and grace if they seem to change their mind about something right at the last minute.
- Another difference between Generators and Manifesting-Generators is that for Mani-Gens, the Sacral Response might be experienced more as physical movement, not just a feeling in the gut. They may actually learn towards or away from something, or even take a small step back or forward. Pay attention to their body language and movement, even if it is subtle!
Projector Children
- As Projectors naturally see others very deeply, they usually love recognition and to simply be “seen” by other people as well.
- Recognizing your Projector child’s value, for example by giving them unique compliments or expressing what you love or admire about them.
- Projectors will likely have less physical energy than Generators and Mani-Gens because they have an undefined Sacral Center. This is completely normal.
- In terms of Strategy, it’s recommended that Projectors “wait for the invitation”, meaning that they should wait to share their gifts, knowledge, and insights with another person until that person invites them to do so.
- Projector children need extra time to wind down before they go to sleep. Try putting them to bed 30-60 minutes early so they can release any non-self energies they’ve picked up throughout the day and then wind down for a good night’s sleep.
Reflector Children
- This is the rarest Type by far, only about 1% of the population.
- Reflectors have all 9 Energy Centers undefined and, in a way, can be “energetic sponges”. However, if they’re made aware of their Design, they can learn to shield and protect themselves from taking in other people’s energy too deeply.
- Reflectors love variety and need a good amount of flexibility and fluidity in their daily lives. They don’t have consistent access to the different types of energy that the Centers govern, therefore things like who they are, how they feel, the direction they’re headed in life… will all change and can even shift from day-to-day.
- Because so much changes for them on a daily basis, encourage your Reflector children to wait a lunar cycle–roughly one month–before making any large or significant decisions. This will give them time to make sure the decision or action is truly aligned (and of course, teaches them the importance of patience!)
- A Reflector’s environment is paramount. Being in the right, healthy, aligned environment and surrounded by the right people (who are also healthy, aligned, and correct for them!) is key. Help your Reflector child create some kind of safe space in the home where they can retreat to spend time alone.
Number Three – Family Dynamics and Energetic Conditioning
Family dynamics is a big topic, so I might end up recording a separate episode/blog post about it (DM me on Instagram @kristamdickson if that would interest you!)
But what I’m talking about here is how your energy (aka your aura) interacts and interplays with your child’s. The same thing goes for you and your partner, and your partner and your child, etc.
When we look at family dynamics, we can generate something called a “connection chart” or “composite chart” that overlays multiple Human Design BodyGraphs together.
Using these charts will help you better understand how individual Designs within your family interact with each other.
I also recommend looking at how you’re likely energetically conditioning each other via your Energy Centers. For example, my daughter influences me through her defined Head, Ajna, and Solar Plexus, as I have all three of those Centers undefined in my chart.
Of course, this works the other way around too, meaning that your child can be conditioned by you; it just comes down to which Energy Centers each of you has defined versus undefined in your chart.
We always absorb and amplify energy through our undefined Center if we are near someone who has that Center defined in their chart. This is how we are energetically conditioned by other people.
To Recap…
Here are the three things I suggest focusing on as you start using Human Design as a parenting tool:
- Understand and explore your own Human Design
- Understand your child’s Human Design
- Look at your family dynamics and how you’re energetically conditioning each other
If you loved this episode and would like to see more on the topic of parenting with Human Design, let me know! Send me a DM on Instagram @kristamdickson
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