My son graduates from high school in nineteen days. I can believe it, and then….can’t hardly believe it.
I’ve waited for this day….I’ve dreaded this day…I’ve prayed for this day.
When your given the opportunity to homeschool your child, you have the opportunity to see the bad, the good, and the very ugly. I can pretty much tell you everything my son is thinking just by looking at him.
When he goes to college…we will see what he’s really made of…and what that will look like depends on him and him alone.
Since I homeschooled him from 4th grade to his 11th grade year I was able to keep him from some things that I really didn’t want him to see, but everyone has to grow up eventually.
I talk with some parents and they are completely undone that I let my son go to a public school his senior year. They are completely undone that I’m letting him choose his college…and be away from home…and I say…perhaps that’s what wrong with kids….we have done a wonderful job of paralyzing them.
I homeschooled my child because I wasn’t impressed with our local public school system. While there are good things about it, if you can make your child take the Honors classes, and fine arts opportunities and sports opportunities…I felt that the bad outweighed the good….but finally….his Senior year….I let him go.
I realized that in a year he would be at a big university, far from home….and I was curious to how well he would fly. So I guess we could call this year…the “temporary run”. I saw some good, some bad…but for the most part good. He learned from his mistakes…and we will see what the future holds.
I have watched many kids from private, Christian, public, homeschool….and I’ve always been amazed at how they turned out. For the most part it seems that the kids who were homeschooled or went to private school…seem to go off the deep end the most. Why is this you ask? Lack of freedom seems to be the best answer I can come up with….but really…I just don’t know.
I am aware that kids are going to do what they want, regardless of how they’ve been raised…that’s just a plain fact. However, this level of parents who feel it can never happen to their child…has me a little stumped. None of us are beyond failure.
I have said it before…I will say it again….whatever awards, whatever disciplines, whatever good or bad things that my child does in this world….is on him. We are accountable for our actions…not our children’s actions. I see a child do something wrong…(and by child I mean 16 or over) and the parents are blamed.
If my child decides to speed that isn’t on me…that’s on him….because I told him he will pay for the ticket and consequences that follow
Lately, I’ve completely given laundry to him….if he doesn’t have that special shirt he needs for tomorrow??? Again….on him….welcome to the real world! Do I do this perfectly??? No I don’t…I have to make myself shut his door and NOT fix it. I took a mental picture of how his room will look in college….or how his roommate is not going to be impressed….and I’m telling you that I really tried….and now…it’s up to the universe to teach him.
I can also tell him what kind of music to listen to, where to go to church…what to eat….who to be friends with. What not to join….what to study…:and all you do is raise an adult who can’t think for themselves.
I can tell my daughter not to wear jeans with holes. Tell my son not to shop at Starbucks or Target. Tell him not to shop at Dicks or buy anything Yeti. I can terrify him of this world….or I can show him how to be a light. A light that shows love and compassion, not a pointing finger. A light that helps others through their hurts….and helps them laugh when all seems lost. I can show them how to pay attention to the lost and forgotten…to be attentive to those around you. To smile at people. To love people. To help someone when they fall…to keep a secret in confidence. To say hello….and not to judge by how short the hemline is. To offer a meal without discussing the kind deed you did on a social platform. To show up on time, when you said you would. To follow through…for your word to count. For you to be counted on to show up….for you to show….Jesus….the real Jesus.
Whatever I do in this world….may people know I truly cared….and may they smile….when they think of me!
May my children walk in truth and point others to the truth by the way they walk.
The Reluctant Red Nose 