Families

The argument against homeschooling is always the same: “Kids need to socialize.”

The argument against homeschooling is always the same: “Kids need to socialize.”

“I told them they don’t eat lunch in the bathroom, so it’s gross to expect me to contaminate baby’s milk in there.”

There’s just no getting around it, and other than one half-hour spell where he sat with a good friend of ours while both of his moms took a swim, one of us had to be with him the entire weekend. And let’s be honest, because I’m “boob mom” and he was nursing even more than normal, it could never really be divided 50/50. All of that was fine, but it was often just fine, and there’s just no denying that it was a very different trip than it would have been without a kid.

The year we homeschooled our fourth-grade son, it seemed like the best idea. We no longer could afford the private school he had been attending, and weren’t sure the local public school was going to be a good fit.

The year we homeschooled our fourth-grade son, it seemed like the best idea. We no longer could afford the private school he had been attending, and weren’t sure the local public school was going to be a good fit.

It would be easy to point to my mother as the originator of my lifelong feminism. She kept her last name when my parents married in the ‘80s, refused to perpetuate schoolyard gender norms, and encouraged my sister and me not to let anyone limit us by our gender... My mother may have been the louder influence, but ignoring my father’s impact does us both a disservice.

If I were a SAHM with just my daughter, I wouldn’t question homeschooling being in my capacity. But I’m not. I’m a WAHM with three little ones. Only my oldest is school age; that leaves my days full, split in many directions, and a touch hectic. Well, more than a touch — they’re very hectic. And is hectic a good setting for learning?