We don’t buy our kids toys but they have iPads hanging around their necks… we’re training them for the future

Two parents said they refuse to buy new toys for their children and don’t even turn on the heating in winter because it is a ‘pointless indulgence’.

Simon and Malcolm Collins have been called the “poster children” of a movement that believes large families are necessary for the future of civilization.

Known as pronatalism, this ideology promotes having a large number of children as a means to address declining global birth rates, which believers say will lead to the collapse of the economy as retirees eventually eclipse the workforce.

The couple, who live in Valley Forge Pennsylvania with their two sons – Octavian George, four, Torsten Savage, two – and daughter, Titan Invictus, 16 months, even run their own charity to promote the way of life, called The Pragmatist.

Pronatalism is based on a ‘numbers game’, meaning that the more children are produced, the more people inherit not only genes, but also the same beliefs.

And although the couple wants to have at least seven children together, they are convinced that their way of raising children is ‘intrinsically low effort’.

The couple has become the face of the pro-natalist movement in America

Based on his readings of authors like Bryan Caplan, Malcolm believes that genetics are even more important than nurture in a child’s development.

That’s why he and his wife don’t buy toys for their children, but each of their children has an iPad, which hangs with a strap around their neck.

‘Almost all toys are gifts. We don’t throw away anything that is sent to us,” Malcolm told the Guardian.

Their children aren’t even allowed to celebrate Christmas either – and have Future Day instead.

Because the family is atheistic and has always taken a ‘scientific’ approach to life, their approach to Christmas is about promoting their children’s ‘moral framework’.

Unlike Santa Claus, the Future Police arrive and take away all the children’s toys.

After the house has been toy-free for a short time, the young people must draw up a contract describing how they will make the world a better place.

Once they complete this task, the toys are returned in abundance.

The Pennsylvania couple is one of the leading proponents of the theory that large families are necessary for the future of civilization through their charity, The Pragmatist Foundation.

Pictured: The Collins couple picking raspberries in a photo shared to Instagram

“They get more gifts if they do what they said they were going to do,” Malcolm explained.

‘What does Christmas teach them? Buy random toys when you’re vaguely good?’

Malcolm, who grew up in a wealthy family in Dallas, also suggests that children aren’t really expensive.

He explained that they won’t live a richer life the more they earn because they want to have a large brood – but that doesn’t mean he will spend money on their further education.

“We can’t send them to a private school. We can’t afford them to go to college,” he revealed.

Simone elaborated further on how they planned to homeschool all their children, saying, “We’re not raising them like they’re retired millionaires either.

‘[This] is what many Americans do: take them as private drivers to football, to juggling and robotics classes. We’re just not going to do that,” she joked

“When people say, ‘I can’t afford children,’ what they mean is, ‘I can’t afford to have children according to the standards that I find culturally normative,’” Malcolm said.

The parents revealed that every decision they have made so far is reportedly backed by data, even down to the names of their children.

The Pennsylvania couple is one of the leading proponents of the theory that large families are necessary for the future of civilization through their charity, The Pragmatist Foundation.

Malcolm said he and fellow influencer wife Simone, 36, watched the feral cats respond to unruly cubs with a quick swipe of the paw. They tried this with their own children and found it very effective, he explained

The father wore matching red pajamas with his children and wife in photos shared to Instagram

They wanted their children to have a strong sense of control, so they chose ‘strong names’.

“Girls with gender-neutral names are more likely to have higher-paying careers and voting credentials,” he said.

‘We wanted to give our children strong names. We want our children to have a strong internal locus of control.”

Although the two are determined to prepare their offspring for the future, the parents are hit with a wave of calls to child welfare services from concerned citizens.

During the interview with a Guardian journalist, Collins punched his two-year-old son in the face as they dined in a restaurant.

The boy, named Torsten Savage, hit the table with his foot, causing it to wobble, and his father, the influencer, reached over and punched him in the face so hard that he was caught on the reporter’s tape recorder.

At the time, they had discussed father-of-11 Elon Musk, who shares Malcolm’s enthusiasm for pronatalism – an ideology that promotes high birth rates.

Malcolm Collins (pictured with his family), 37, left a Guardian journalist ‘shocked’ after punching his two-year-old son in the face as they dined at a restaurant in his hometown of Valley Forge on the outskirts of Philadelphia on Saturday

After hitting his child, he continued the conversation as if nothing had happened.

At the time, he justified the controversial parenting style to the journalist by drawing parallels with tigers and the way they deal with their misbehaving cubs.

“I was just giving you context so you don’t think I’m being offensive or anything,” Malcolm told the reporter, who said the blow was not “heavy” but loud enough to be heard in her voice recording.

Malcolm’s explanation for the physical reaction did not satisfy some readers, who expressed their concerns to child protection officials.

‘Several people have called [child-welfare services] about this,” Malcolm told the New York Post on Sunday. “There is now an active movement to take our children away.”