The first chart I looked at? Mine.
The second chart I looked at? My sons’ charts.
Human Design is said to be originally made for parents to nurture and understand the next generation. The hope is that children are not raised to be all the same – we celebrate their individuality and needs from an early age. Perhaps they will require less deconditioning when they are adults.
I do not read charts for adults the same way I read charts for children.
With adults, I read with a reverence for remembrance, revealing their natural mechanics that are sometimes pushed away due to societal expectations.
With children, I see opportunities for encouragement before societal expectations are brought in.
Conditioning versus influence
Ra Uru Hu states that the first seven years are the most important of a child’s life because it sets the foundation for the rest of their lives. This is based on the idea that human cells regenerate every seven years (which has been debunked, so take this as you will).
The assumption is that the younger the child, the less conditioning they will have picked up.
Let’s talk about conditioning though.
Conditioning is what does not belong to you. There’s nothing inherently good or bad about conditioning – it exists. Your challenge is to explore whether there is wisdom in this conditioning – is this something you want to work with or is this something that you want to remove yourself from?
From the moment a child is born, they are conditioned anyway.
They will be conditioned by their immediate environment, their media intake, the people they interact with (including other children), and day-to-day transits.
Here’s an example of how I condition my son (and he conditions me in return):
The left chart is mine with 7 undefined centers.
My son’s chart is on the right, with 4 undefined centers.
If you look at the chart in the center, that’s what both of our charts look like when we’re alone together (which happened a lot when his older brother would have school). You’ll see that all of our undefined centers are now lit up and there are so many more channels for both of us to work with. This is a visual of what conditioning looks like in a Human Design chart, which is why I say children are conditioned from the moment of birth.
Conditioning is said to happen when you are within six feet of that person.
These days, the words influence and conditioning are used interchangeably in Human Design. It’s easier this way.
Influence is when you are affected by people who are not in your general vicinity. It is the reinforcement of habits and thought processes.
My son is often with his father because of custody arrangements. Now, if he is removed from my vicinity and three hours away, I am not “conditioning” him. But since he’s going to pick up habits, thoughts, and perspectives based on living with me, I have “influenced” him.
When doing professional readings, I just call it all conditioning because they work hand in hand.
Speaking of doing Human Design readings like a pro… when I started reading my family’s charts, I was overwhelmed with everything that was popping up. Something that really helped me was building out a small database of someone’s Human Design and working on it in “chunks.”
I built mine out in a free app called Notion and you can duplicate my template with one click. Instructions included.
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💡Frequently Asked Question: How come I feel conditioned by someone online if they are far away?
My Human Design mentor, who has been around the system since its conception, and I had a conversation about this. We feel conditioned by each other through a phone call, even though we live on opposite ends of the country. In my practice, I do believe that conditioning can transcend space as long as you’re connecting with the person somehow, but there’s no hard-set confirmation on this.
Focus on the type, strategy, and authority first
This is where things are similar to reading for an adult, with adjustments because you have to factor in the limitations and boundaries we set on children, especially for their own safety.
Here are some of the adjustments I may make for each child when working with their parents:
Manifestor Child
- Giving them space to talk “at” people so they can learn how to inform others, but end with asking for permission. Authority figures can be taken aback by a child speaking so boldly and most of them will not take kindly to “being told” by a child.
- Don’t take it personally if your child wants to spend some time alone, especially if they were just put in a social setting. They may want to be left alone when “manifesting” in order to figure things out. Check-in on them, maybe compromise by asking them not to close their door.
- Hear them. Listen to them. Even if you don’t understand.
Manifesting Generator Child
- Give them lots of activities to spend their sacral energy – martial arts classes, trampolines, hands-on toys. Allow them to walk the dogs with you.
- Honor a possibly irregular naptime schedule. Since their energy tends to come forward in bursts, they may spend their sacral energy all at once and need to recuperate in the middle of the day. Allow them to rest, even if you have to wake them up a little earlier so they don’t sleep through dinner and stay up all night.
- Children make up their own language and use sounds in place of words. While society will encourage speech therapy or tell them to “use the right words,” their sacral center may not always translate the sacral voice into actual words yet, when it comes out of the throat center. It’s up to you whether you want them to “use their words” or give them room to balance tapping into their sacral voice.
Generator Child
- Generators tend to slow-burn their energy, versus bursting the way Manifesting Generators do. If they do not seem “high-energy,” despite having a defined sacral center, take note of how they like to spend that energy. Is it endlessly reading a book? Working on play-dough or a lego set?
- Give them options, rather than forcing them to answer an open-ended question. I ask my Generator type children what they’re hungry for by giving them options (PBJ? mac and cheese? chicken nuggets?) This allows them to run the options through their sacral for the uh-huh, nuh-uh. I also ask them to rate their hunger on a scale of 1-10 (when they were younger, I’d ask if they were “big hungry” or “small hungry”).
- Same as the Manifesting Generator… Children make up their own language and use sounds in place of words. While society will encourage speech therapy or tell them to “use the right words,” their sacral center may not always translate the sacral voice into actual words yet. It’s up to you whether you want them to “use their words” or give them room to balance tapping into their sacral voice.
Projector Child
- Notice them and give them compliments. This is a form of recognition.
- Build up your Projector’s self-confidence to minimize their need to seek outside validation. It can be difficult for a Projector child to watch others “respond” or “inform” and not get the same reaction when they try to do the same thing.
- Listen if they are tired. Projector children can keep up with other types, but take longer to bounce back after energy is spent. A day’s rest can regenerate a child after a full day at Disney, but a Projector child might only be partially recharged.
Reflector Child
- Listen if they feel sick, whether spiritually, emotionally, or physically. They are reflecting their environment and are “canaries in the coal mine.” If they don’t feel well, there is likely something in the environment that isn’t working for them. Bring them to safety.
- Give them room and time to explore, sample, and curate before demanding an answer for them. Perhaps ask them what they’d like to do for a birthday a month or so prior to the birthday so they can stew on the answer.
- Allow them space to try new things and shift as they need to – don’t be too concerned if they don’t have a “consistent” identity, hobbies, etc. They will “curate” their identity as they go.
Remember that Human Design isn’t about the “traits” it is about the “expression”
Adults fall into this trap themselves and will often project it onto their children.
When I’m in a space with those who are new to Human Design, there is usually this strictness to adhere to an idea of what Human Design should look like.
The kicker: Human Design is meant to be lived, not mentally theory crafted.
An example I often see is when Projectors go, “Ah crap, I wasn’t invited!” You wouldn’t want to tell your child to shush because they’re speaking in a place where they weren’t invited, especially because invitations come forward in so many different forms.
So when it looks like your emotional authority child is making decisions too quickly and not checking in with their wave, take a step back. Have they already rode the waves out long before you knew about this decision? I’ve seen emotional authorities force themselves to “wait longer” because they mentally believe this is what they need to do.
Children naturally live in their design, for the most part. Allow their expressions to unravel the wonder of how they live in that design, rather than force them into the sterility of what we think their design should look like.
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