Why are some homeschoolers bitter about homeschooling?

I don't feel you are taking a pot shot at me. Frankly I'm not sure why you would anyway for simply saying I would consider allowing my chld to go to high school if that is what she wanted to try. I'm not sure why you feel railroaded from both sides here - unless you didn't mean here but in your real life, I'm not sure what you meant.[/QUOTE]


No, I wasn't clear. I'm having a really bad week but I was refering to RL & not this board & I think it's great your local schools are good enough you feel you can allow those sort of choices.

 

I gotcha! I kind of figured you didn't mean here on this board but in real life but hey ya never know right. Sorry you're having a bad week. I hope the weekend is better for you.

 

I've had these same concerns myself. I don't want my kids to feel like they had a "sheltered" life. I want them to experience life and make bad choices that they can learn from. Not that I want them to make bad choices but I want them to be able to make their OWN choices.I have heard about kids who were homeschooled and how well mannered they were and what great kids they were and then once they get out on their own they go wild. And I think this happens because they aren't allowed to experience things for themselves. The parents made all their decisions for them and they don't know how to make their own good decisions. And I think that this can cause problems between parents and children and that it can also cause the child to "hate" homeschooling. It's not the homeschooling part that they hate at all (as someone already stated )It's definately the parenting style. We have a friend right now who is basically smoothering her children. They aren't allowed to do this or do that. And I was actually asked to have a talk with my son about being alone with her daughter. My son is 11 and her daughter is 10 they were at the skate park with other siblings who left them to go find frogs. I didn't see anything that needed to be corrected going on. Another time was at our home. My son was watching Tv in the livingroom and her daughter came inside and was on the phone. I was again asked to talk to my son. These are children and they weren't doing anything. Anyhow back to the point I was trying to make. How are children supposed to grow to be good upstanding citizens when they are not given a chance to make a mistake that they can learn from?? Does that make sense?? Or am I looking at this wrong??

As far as allowing my children the choice to go back to public school, I don't have a problem with it. My children all (with the exception of my 4 yo) have been in public school and they all say they LOVE homeschooling. My oldest son has mentioned going back to ps. next year when he is in 7th grade. I struggle with this because our junior high here is very rough and I don't want him to go through that but if he wants that and my husband agrees we may send him. But they will all most likely go back in High School if they want to. I'm not saying that their decision to go back to school is a bad/good choice. I'm just saying that they should have some say in "some" things. I don't want to controll everything. But I have a hard time sometimes letting go of them. I'm not ready to do that. But I have to.....UGH! This parenting thing is SO hard!

 

I will admit I did not read the whole thread.

However, I did want to comment on Mommix's post above my own. I think you make perfect sense and I have had the same concerns myself. I went to ps for 12 years. I know I was more street smart than my kids at thier ages. So, at times it does concern me. I want them to have a level of discernment that life provides. My kids even at times display feeling weird around large groups of kids. For instance...we were going to the park and there were like three school buses there that day. Tons of kids were on the swings and stuff. My kids wanted to then go somewhere else. Personally, I did also..LOl...but did not express that. Mostly because it was extremely crowded and I also have a 3 year old. But I did wonder for a bit if they just didn't feel comfortable in a setting with so many kids. Maybe I am nuts. LOL. They are in Awana and have taken sports...and don't express this at the zoo or amusment parks...so maybe I am making too much out of it. Yet...that is also my point. Maybe we make too much out of it.

Kids need to be grounded and have a good foundation to handle what life throws at them. From my Christian point of view...I feel raising them with strong Chrisitan values and having God in their lives will provide them a foundation. I also feel God will allow them discernment when needed.

I suppose we just wonder if they will crumble or be naive if faced with some of what life throws at them. Kids do need to learn from life and from mistakes. Yet, I have seen kids in school crumble and be naive. So...maybe school is not the answer. There are some who make terrible mistakes. Do they always learn from them?

I guess what I am saying is that there are no guarantess. I have a friend who considered homeschooling because she didn't want her girls to become worldly. I told her that homeschooling is not safeguard against becoming worldly. There are no safeguards.

So, I guess we continue to do what we feel is best and how we feel the Lord is leading us if we are Christain. That is all we can do. We cannot allow the outside to lure us in out of fear that our kids will crumble in the "real world." We see kids crumbling everyday that are in that supposed "real world".

I know some people at my church who were homeschooled children and they are very well adjusted wonderful people. I have interacted with some teens, some homeschooled and some not. I found that teens were teens. Yet, I also found that the homeschooled ones didn't make the same mistakes and it was not out of naviety. In the face of trials those homeschooled kids did not crumble. Yet, many others in school did.

Again, no safeguards or gurantees....however, I have seen the product of homeschooling on some teens and adults and so far it was positive. I am sure there are plenty of negative cases out there. LOL...so there you go...parenting is just hard and full of choices. No matter what we do we will feel like we made the wrong choice at times. LOL.