Comments on Homeschooling

OK, so we've all been there. Talking to someone and all of a sudden it's like 500 questions tossed at us about homeschooling and all of them about how "bad" it's got to be for either us or the children. Hardly ever do we get those comments about them being glad we homeschool, or how the statistics look for homeschoolers, and seldom do we get the honest curious questions. So, here is a look at a few of the comments on homeschooling and how we really see them...

"But, you're always with your kids!" Well, yeah, we're always with our kids. We're their parents first and their teachers second. We like being with our children (most of the time) and chose this path for ourselves no one forced this on us. Of course, we do enjoy some time to ourselves as adults but then again so do most parents we know.

"It's such a HUGE commitment!" ... Hrm ... How to put this politely... Having children is a HUGE commitment, teaching them just comes along with the job after all we all potty train our children (hopefully).

"You must be one of those Jesus freaks, right?" First off, not all homeschoolers are Christians. Secondly, we prefer not to be called freaks ... It's rude!

"Those poor children! They must feel so isolated!" (OK, as I typed that one ECJ burst out into snorting laughter.) This is such a false statement we usually just look at people with a raised eyebrow. Many homeschool children go to co-ops, church functions, sports practice, martial arts, dance, art classes, swim classes, and so much more. Some even have more on their agenda than many "regular" schooled children. Homeschool children simply do not socialize with only one age group, they learn to socialize with every age group.

"You must be well off to be able to do that!" Actually, by and far the majority of the homeschool families that we've met had to give up an income to be able to homeschool. They survive on one income and manage to budget for curriculum, extra curricular, and field trips along with being able to pay the bills. They simply sacrifice those $5 Starbuck's coffee's (or other extras that they do not need) that they used to drink on the way into work ... Oh wait, I never bought those even when I was working...

"Those poor poor children stuck in the house all day!" Yeah, 'cause you know the only place to play is on the school play ground for the fifteen minutes before or after lunch that you're allotted ... Right.

"You never get vacations from school!" Yup, we're all nose to the grindstone even while we're swimming at the beach and visiting the zoo. It's not my child's problem that they come running to me talking about some shell they found at the edge of the water and instead of saying, "yes, mmmhmm, that's nice dear" we pull out the smart phone to find out what kind of shell it is and answer their questions. But, yeah we're always pen to paper working ... sure thing (I think my kids would tie me up if I tried to get away with making them work out of texts with no breaks 365 days a year, how about you?).

"What about gym class?" Yeah, OK, so we don't have gymnasiums in our houses (well, at least I don't but someone might) ... that doesn't mean that our children don't have gym class. We just define it differently. It's swimming, martial arts, dance, ... wait didn't we go through part of this list already??

Other questions that we've been asked/accused of are:
That must be illegal. Nope.
You must be a saint. LOL NOPE
You just don't send them to school because you want to be lazy. Yeah, because lesson planning for three children, instructing three children, and being on my feet an average of ten hours a day is sure lazy, huh?
Those poor children will never go a prom/find a boyfriend or girlfriend/be able to attend a sports event. Yeah, because we all live under rocks with our kids. There's plenty of homeschool proms and homeschooler's that get invited to public school proms by their girlfriend or boyfriend they met at one of those sporting events or extra curricular they were taking ... Or *gasp* perhaps even church.

There's several more that I'm sure I could come up with or that you've heard yourself. Sometimes we get all of these from one person, sometimes just one question per person, sometimes none of them, but when we get them even Peanut looks at people like they need to try to understand. I'm not talking about those people who are genuinely curious or concerned for your child's welfare (like grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.). I'm talking those people who don't even really know you who are spouting off like either you're some kind of saint that never looses their cool or that you're completely nutso and keeping your kids under lock and key beneath some rock somewhere where nothing whatsoever intrudes (like, oh I don't know, life).

*This post was not written to offend anyone. Just as my honest take on some of the off the wall things that have been said/asked of me since we began our homeschooling journey.*

Linking up today with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for List It {Tuesday}

Squishable Baby 

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