Editing The Finders (movement) (section)

=== Child rearing ===
In 1980, the group radically changed their child rearing practices to raise a generation of "toughened" children. To replicate what they believed was the original method of living of Native Americans, the children were raised communally instead of by their parents.<ref name=":0" />

According to George Pettie, the group operated as "an extended family" of people who were "under his father's sway."<ref name=":0" /> Members shared parental responsibility for children, in order to allow Pettie to send them on "adventures" to teach them about themselves.<ref name="Melton2009" /><ref name="PrometheusBooks2002" /><ref name=":0" /> Pettie would identify a character flaw in a member and send them away. On their return, they would describe the "lesson" they learned to other members.<ref name=":0" /> During this time, they would not see their biological children for months, and the children would be collectively cared for by other members.<ref name=":0" /> The children were not enrolled in school.<ref name=":0" />

Neighbors reported seeing children at both the [[Madison County, Virginia|Madison County]] farm and the [[Glover Park]] home. During the summers, as many as a dozen children lived on the farm, and neighbors reported "hollering and screaming ... about Momma and Daddy."<ref name=":0" />  Neighbors to the Glover Park home reported that "the children often went without clothes in the summer" and at least one report was made to police regarding a child who was screaming for more than an hour."<ref name=":0" />

According to Pettie, members of the group pooled their money.<ref name="Culp960209" />