I received a text from a new home educating friend of mine asking this question:
My veteran homeschooling friend, is it NORMAL to sometimes feel like you are dooming your children to being garbage collectors or burger flippers?!??
So? What sayeth ye?
My response:
Absolutely. I feel like that every day and twice on Mondays. (I received this text on Monday)
Today I sent back this text:
Three times on Thursday, just sayin'
First of all, my friend means no ill will towards burger flippers or garbage collectors.
Secondly, I am not attempting to discourage my friend, I truly mean to encourage. Really.
One problem I find with blogging is that the blogger shares the parts of their life that they want to share and readers like that for the most part. We like to read about the good, the clean and the organized. I mean seriously, who wants to read a negative blog for the long term? I don't. Funny, I can handle but not negative.
That brings me back to it ain't all pretty:
- Every day will not be story book or blog perfect.
- Some days will be absolutely wonderful.
- Other days will be the NORM, stuff gets accomplished, people get fed, laundry gets done and somewhere in the day there is laughter and enjoyment.
- Some days will be great educational milestone days.
- Other days will everyone will be glad when the day's work is finished.
So, why do I continue to educate my children at home? I continue because even though the days are not all pretty days, in the end this will be a journey that we will all be the better for taking. My children will know that their Momma is a real person and that even though she is not perfect she loved them, even when it wasn't all pretty.
good words of encouragement!
ReplyDeleteAmen sister, Amen!
ReplyDeleteI am not worried so much about the burger flipping and garbage picking, as I am the years of therapy I am sure they will need as adults because it feels like I am messing up more days than others ;-)
So true, so true. I think some homeschoolers set themselves up expecting perfection. No ones days are perfect, not even people who send their kids to public school. You have such a great perspective.
ReplyDeleteOh yes.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your honesty! Good post.
ReplyDeleteWe are not home-schooling this year. Tough decision and I really hope to have them back home in a year or two! I have all the respect in the world for home-school moms. It is one of the most physically and mentally demanding jobs on the planet.
Blessings!
Thank you for posting this. I needed it right now.
ReplyDeleteI have graduated 3 children from homeschooling. My oldest child, a daughter - age 28, began working at age 16 as cashier in a grocery store. She attended community college, worked as a pharmacy tech for a while, and then moved on to record keeping / computer data entry at one of our local banks. She married and then became a stay-at-home mom around the time of the birth of her second child. She has asked me to help her homeschool her children.
ReplyDeleteMy second child, a son - age 25, has been working since just before his 16th birthday. He began working as stocker in a hardware store, then moved on to "hand-hewing" logs for a log home construction company. From there he went to work in a factory that made the cement bases for cell phone towers [ I think that is what that company made, :) ]
Now, he is a correctional officer for a state maximum security prison. He is doing well working for the prison system, and he plans to make a career there.
My youngest child, a son -age 21, began doing lawn care for neighbors and our church when in his mid-teens. After graduation, he began attending our local community college and he also began working as stocker, cashier, etc. at a discount dept. store. For several months now, he has been working for one of our local banks. I'm not really sure what it is that he does, but it involves having access to all of their computers and files, including those of all of the bank's other branches in other towns and cities. Before being hired for this job, my son had to be fingerprinted and have a police background check done. Recently, while doing my grocery shopping, I saw a lady that has worked for this bank for many years. She told me that my son was doing a really good job at the bank.
Not one of my kids ended up becoming a hired garbage collector or hamburger flipper, not that there is anything wrong with those jobs, but they did start out doing minimal wage jobs, which is to be expected of anyone.