3 Reasons Not to Allow Your Children to Speak to Strangers

Lisa's Blog
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I’ve been in my closet all afternoon trying on clothes for the THSC convention this weekend.  I am running out of things to wear.  I guess I could do laundry from last weekend….nah.  That would require work and I am still tired from my trip to Gina’s cottage.  I’ll just rummage through what I have left and find something else to squeeze onto my body.

 

I can’t believe I am leaving home again so soon.  But I wouldn’t miss this conference for anything.  It gets me motivated to get back into school and I always need it by this time of year.  I am so unmotivated right now that I am pretty sure without this conference we’d be in our pajamas until November and my kids would embarrass me in public.

 

It’s every homeschoolers nightmare.  In the grocery store when people say to the kids, “Why aren’t you in school?” and I tell them we homeschool….strangers consider it their obligation to be sure we are actually teaching them something.  I always brace myself.  Usually we manage to look halfway intelligent, but there have been several times I wanted to crawl away.

 

Once a lady asked Jacob how to spell his name.  He looked at her and said, “I don’t know.”  He was 8.  She gave me the “that-is-why-homeschooling-is-bad” look.  After she walked away I asked Jacob why he told her that when he DID know how to spell his name.  He said he thought it would be funny.

 

Another time a man started asking them history questions.  “What year was the Civil War?” to which my kids replied, “We don’t know what year it was but we don’t call it the Civil War, we call it the War of Northern Aggression.”  Oh Lordy, I wanted to throw a muzzle on them and run as fast as I could.

 

But my favorite is when we were waiting in a long line at the store.  A man turned to Patience (who was about 5 at the time) and started talking to her.  She told him she homeschooled and for some reason his response was to ask her if she knew any songs.  So she started singing the Budweiser Beer jingle.  Darn that James and his obsession with TV theme songs.

 

I am excited about the convention, but maybe I ought to rethink my wardrobe plan.  If I’m going to be tested on my homeschooling skills, I should be wearing something nice to distract from my inadequacies.

 

 

 

18 Comments

  2. Haha!!! I was homeschooled and HATED it when strangers asked questions like that, I always hated the pressure to “perform”. I haven’t had to deal with that much with my kids, but it’s coming… Grrrrrrr! Have fun! And thanks for stopping by my blog!

  10. You actually take your kids out in public? Not me! I shelter them, over protect them and leave them at home and make sure that they are completely unsocialized. LOL! Okay, I’m kidding but you are making me rethink it. Ha! Ha!
    Have a great time at the conference. Maybe you can motivate me with your wisdom when you get back. I need to glean off of someone since I won’t be making it to any conferences this year.

  11. One time a some friends of ours were out and about when their then little boy Paul was asked what grade he was in and he said, “Mister I don’t nothing about nothing cause I been homeschooled all my life!”
    Can you imagine? LOL!!
    I love being homeschooled!!!
    ~Kristiana

  12. So true! I always hate it when people start “quizzing” my kids on what we’ve learned…..I even had to train my husband on this. He would ask the 4 year old things like “how much does an elephant weigh” when we told him when been studying elephants. I was just happy she knew that they were the largest land animal. I’m sure people mean well…at least some of them 🙂

  14. Oh my! Love the “war of northern regression”! It sounds that if your kids have learned a terrific sense of humor! I teach for an online high school and have many families who have home schooled for most of their schooling. Some of the smartest kids I’ve ever known!

  15. Lisa,
    It was so neat to meet you today in Jason’s Deli! I was so excited, I told all my friends I must of seemed like a total nut. Your blog, along with a few others are a part of my regular nightly reading while I’m nursing my newest baby to sleep and enjoying the quiet:).
    I love your writing and witty humor! Enjoy your weekend,
    Amy

  16. Kids after my own heart… War of Northern Aggression … Er, so what’s wrong with telling it like it is? 😉

    We call it the War between the States, but everyone we speak to responds with a….’Er…Uh?’. Mind you, we’re in Scotland, so they do the same even if we say Civil War!

    Weird homeschooled kids…. that’s what we get for taking them out in public. This year, they’re not gonna get out at all. Isn’t that what normal homeschoolers do?
    Oh, hang on – there *are* no normal homeschoolers. Are there?!

  17. Thank you ever so much. I now get to go to bed giggling. Love it.

    Your kids crack me up. As do you. Glad I found you. Although you might not be. You might have to tell me to chill out already. But that’s okay. I’ll still read. And laugh.

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