This week, my oldest has golf camp. This means we all need to be fed, matching, and out the door at the ungodly hour of – wait for it – eight o’clock. IN THE MORNING. (I know, right!?)
A few minutes before go-time this morning, I was yelling at some child to GO GET YOUR SHOES ON. FOR THE LAST TIME. I was scraping oatmeal mush into the sink with one hand and filling a water bottle with the other – when it hit me.
I could never do this regularly.
My house, when I arrived back home (sans one golfer) was a disaster. It looked like a tornado jumbled the contents of the breakfast aisle and a CVS. Toothbrushes with paste, stuck to the counter. Pajamas, lone shoes, and hairbrushes littering the sofa.
I felt frazzled, but I couldn’t let the mess linger for too long of course, because by bedtime I’d have a whole other list of packing/prepping/organizing/preparing to do…again. As much as this one loves golf camp, I find myself counting down the days until this week is over…and life is quiet again.
And I have time again.
I’ve heard it said – thought it myself, truthfully – that homeschooling is a lot. Takes a lot. Requires a lot. And that’s all true. It is hard.
But the thing I’m coming to realize?
I just don’t think I have time not to homeschool.
I don’t have time to pack backpacks, wash lunch boxes, make lunches or ransack the house every single day for someone’s coat/shoes/water bottle/folder/paper that absolutely must go with us or the world will come to an end.
I do not have time for the afternoon chaos. The unpack/snack/I’M SO HUNGRY/when is dinner/do your homework/do a chore/clean up this mess/three hour rodeo before we shower and do it all again.
I do not have time for the traffic. Whenever I have to leave the house during the morning rush, I always think, WHERE IN THE WORLD DID THESE PEOPLE ALL COME FROM??? IS THERE A HURRICANE? ARE WE EVACUATING? Although I want to be one of those moms who plays car games and shares prayer requests on the interstate, driving, unfortunately, turns me into a she-devil. I just want it to be over.
I do not have time for homework. I cannot imagine sacrificing the beautiful sunset hours at the altar of worksheets and D.E.A.R. Time. If I had to do anything important, requiring patience, with my child between the Witching Hours of 3pm-5pm, I would surely turn into a dragon. Afternoons, in case you were curious, exist for two reasons – playing with neighbors, and climbing trees. Or drinking a second cup of coffee while watching the aforementioned. (Ahem.)
I do not have time to micromanage my child’s education. I cannot speak from experience, but I get physically exhausted thinking about attempting to decipher what my child’s curriculum covers, how it’s being taught, what gaps there may be, and how to fill those gaps (while not confusing said child.) Knowing me, I’d be tempted to just assume they’re fine.
And last, I do not have time to fit in the Real Parenting on weekends, 3-7pm, and a very brief summer. Because I know me. I am so. stinkin. distracted.
I would become a School Momster (mom +monster), positively obsessing over missing homework folders, socks, waters. Angrily herding everyone into the car to the tune of FOR THE LAST TIME, IT IS TIME TO GO!
I know me. And I know that by the time everyone is dressed and properly pack-muled into the car with his appropriate bags (or un-pack-muled, as the case may be), I would have very little time left.
To just enjoy them.
To listen really listen to their little stories.
To teach them things I believe in.
To do nothing. Because the nothings are what real friendships are made of.
Goodness knows I already feel like I haven’t paid them enough attention. And they are here with me nearly every waking minute.
Frankly, I just do not have any more time to lose.
I don’t have the time not to homeschool.
~
*Disclaimer. Let’s get the elephant out of the room. This is not an attempt at being divisive or guilt-inducing. There are women who send/have sent their kids off to school who surpass me as a mother in every single way. By no means does good parenting require homeschool. Parenting, good parenting, is in any capacity very hard work. And that is my whole point. You are afraid of the stress homeschooling would bring you? Well you may, perhaps, be surprised at how much it relieves.
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Amen! 🙂
YES! We are starting homeschool Kindy this year (in two weeks) and a big reason is the fact that I don’t want to waste time in car lines (really??). I don’t want to pack lunches when it takes me 5 min. to throw one together each day at 11:30. I don’t want someone else responsible for their morals. I also look forward to the days when my mom makes an impromptu visit, or the flexibility we have to schedule a dr appt in the middle of the day when others are at school. There are so many reasons to homeschool and this post really brings up a lot of good stuff. Thanks for writing it!
I feel exactly the same way. With any decision, some parts will always be easier and others will be more challenging. I prefer the simplicity and chaos of homeschooling over the busyness and stress of being on someone else’s schedule. I prefer living life more slowly. I, too, “do not have the time not to homeschool.”
I feel the same way!!! I have just started the homeschool year with my second grader and pre-k and my almost three year old (who isn’t much of a participant yet) but I actually was so excited to start because it meant we would stop running out the door to summer activities and camps! I am signing up for next to nothing next summer, I tell you. We haven’t ever known anything different than homeschooling. I just don’t think I could handle it!!
Yes! I know there’s lots of “free time” for moms during the day when kids are at school… but I don’t want to have extra time to do stuff if it means losing all those hours each day with my boys. Not homeschooling isn’t worth it for me either.
You will NEVER regret the hours you spent with your kids homeschooling and just loving on them! From this mom whose youngest of six just graduated from homeschooling!! My ” kids ” are now..32, 29, 27, 24, 21 and 18! And yes…Time flies but it was so worth it!! Don’t grow weary of well doing all you moms with little ones!
I hadn’t thought about it like this, but you’re so right! I would probably turn into a Momster, too, that is, after I stopped crying from missing my children all day. 🙂
My son had golf camp last week, and we didn’t have to leave the house until 8:45, but I felt the same way! I was glad he enjoyed it, but I was glad when it was over. 🙂
Amen! People think I’m crazy for homeschooling 10 kids, but I think it’d be more crazy to send them to school for every reason you mentioned plus a few others! Sharing this post. 😃
Right now I am a SAHM to my two wonderful children. We are not formally homeschooling yet but I think all the time that I would be an even worse mother if I tried to work on top of everything else.
I applaud mothers who can do it all but I know myself well enough to know I’m not one of them.
One of the reasons we plan on homeschooling is that our kids would be on the bus for almost an hour each way and if I chose to drive them to school and pick them up I would spend close to two hours in the car every day. Who has that kind of time either to waste on the bus or in the car?
Our situation is the same. I’m not driving that much and I’m not putting a kindergartner on the bus for a total of 2 hours per day. In that amount of time school could be over and done at home.
I never looked at sending my kids off to school that way but you are right, it is chaotic. I never considered homeschooling because I did not think I would make a good teacher who can explain concepts well at their level. As it is, my explanations to their incessant questions never seem to satisfy their curiousity. We do live in walking distance of elementary, middle and high schools my kids attend which is awesome. And I make them pack their own lunches which we have down to a science more or less so that’s a step in the right direction. 🙂 Great post, I’m an NC Blogger too, hope you’ll linkup with us at Small Victories Sunday Linkup going on all week.
YES! A big reason we will be, too. Since pulling our son out of preschool, I am reminded how much I just couldn’t be the peaceful and quiet mother getting kids out the door. And because anxiety kits me if our life is chaotic or out of routine, it is good FOR ALL THE FAMILY if we do homeschool. Mum’s who can do school and do it well rock, but there are some mother’s who can’t and schooling their kids at home {though hard} blesses the family all round.
Truer words were never spoken!! My oldest went to private school from K-4th grade. I felt rushed all the time! She just turned 13 and this year will be our 4th year homeschooling. It has been such a blessing to our family in so many ways.
We too, are the exact same way when we have an early morning on our Classical Conversations day each week.
. I always thank God we only have to do that crazy morning thing once a week!
Thanks so much for the great post!
I really like this because we have done public school (for years) and looking back, it was a major hassle! I hate homework with a passion because it takes away precious kid and family time. Being on someone else’s schedule, tied to their rules was not fun, especially when parents come in last to the equation. Reteaching our values… So glad those years are behind us! Homeschooling is such a blessing.
Absolutely! One of our many reasons for homeschooling was because the idea of getting our oldest to school each day, with 4 little ones 3 and under was daunting to say the least.
There’s only so many hours that I have with my little ones and I don’t have any time to waste.
Excellent! Yes, I get it!! We homeschool year round. We go all the way up to VBS week at church which is mid-July. That whole week I get a reminder of how much I would hate to rush out the door everyday and then come back home utterly exhausted, yet still have so much to do.