From the home of Counsel Atticus
The Guide on Life
The morals, the ethics, and the legal ins and outs of raising a family — the guide nobody hands you in the delivery room. Written by a mother who happens to be counsel. Put your kids here. Let them watch this.
My Own Table First
The McDermott home · Harper (15) · Finch (9) · an evening like most evenings
These are my children. My daughter Harper — fifteen, fierce, currently on her third reading of To Kill a Mockingbird and losing patience with Atticus Finch's slowness, which I consider a family trait. My son Finch — nine, a chess cheat in recovery, who believes objections are for dinner-table use. I do not counsel families from a mountaintop. I counsel them from a sofa with homework on the coffee table and someone yelling about whose turn it is.
Everything below I practice before I preach: discipline without rage, apology when I'm wrong — out loud, so they hear a grown-up do it — the truth even when it costs me, and the record kept: we finish arguments in this house, we don't abandon them. That is parenting, and as it happens, it is also litigation.
Your Rights, Your Duties, Your Lines
Your right to raise your children is fundamental
The Supreme Court called parents' care, custody, and control of their children 'perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests.' The state doesn't get to second-guess a fit parent's decisions because a bureaucrat would choose differently.
The child is not the mere creature of the state
Parents direct education and upbringing — public, private, or home education under your state's rules. Know your state's compulsory-attendance and homeschool statutes; the duty to educate is real, but the choice of how belongs to you.
Faith and family values carry constitutional weight
The Court protected Amish parents' right to direct their children's upbringing against a state schooling mandate. Your household's moral formation is yours to lead.
But parental rights have limits
'Parents may be free to become martyrs themselves. But it does not follow they are free to make martyrs of their children.' Neglect, endangerment, and abuse are where your rights end and the state's duty begins — know the line and stay far from it.
Discipline is lawful; injury is not
Every state permits reasonable parental discipline; every state criminalizes discipline that causes injury or is inflicted in rage. The legal tests look at force used, the child's age, and marks left. A parent disciplining calmly, proportionately, and never in fury stays inside every state's line — and raises a better human besides.
Be respectful, be calm, know the basics
You may ask for identification and the reason for the visit. Absent a court order or exigent circumstances, you generally may decline entry — respectfully. Never obstruct, never lie, document everything, and get counsel early. Cooperation with a lawyer beside you protects your family better than either fear or fury.
Children Yelling and Screaming — Counsel's Playbook
Lower your voice when theirs rises. A courtroom rule that works in kitchens: the person who stays quietest holds the room. Screaming back teaches that volume wins — and volume must never win, in houses or in courts.
Let them make their record. "You have two full minutes. I will not interrupt. Then I get mine." Children who are truly heard de-escalate; children who are silenced appeal — loudly, and forever.
Rule on the conduct, never on the child. "The door-slamming is unacceptable" lands differently than "you are impossible." Judges sanction acts, not souls. So do good parents.
Never discipline in fury. Legally, discipline delivered in rage is exactly where every state's abuse statutes begin looking. Morally, it teaches fear instead of formation. Walk away, breathe, return, and rule calmly — every single time.
Apologize on the record. When you get it wrong — and you will — say so in front of them. A parent who can reverse their own ruling raises children who respect authority instead of merely fearing it.
The Series: \u201CRaising a Family by the Book\u201D
Six episodes, scripted and ready for the founder to record and post — each one built from this page.
Troxel and the fundamental right to parent — what the Supreme Court actually said about your family.
Yelling, screaming, slammed doors: the de-escalation playbook, and where the legal line on discipline truly sits.
Compulsory education, homeschool law, and Pierce — the child is not the creature of the state.
Rights, duties, and the calm script that protects your children and your record.
Privacy, monitoring, and consent — parenting a minor in a digital world without breaking trust or law.
Teaching children the Constitution at the dinner table — the McDermott house method.
This guide is legal education and parenting commentary, not legal advice, therapy, or a substitute for either. Family law varies by state; where your family faces a live legal matter, retain counsel. Harper and Finch are characters of this house — the doctrine, statutes, and cases are entirely real. Every family, like every case, is sui generis.
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