Politically INcorrect

Okay. So I rarely feel the need to vent (to anyone but my family anyway), but today is an exception. We had an end-of-season dinner at a pizza place for my son, Robert, and his baseball team. The kids all sat together and the parents sat at another table. I was seated with one of the fathers. He is a nice guy and I know he was just intrigued by homeschool, but he started questioning our decision to homeschool and I left feeling a little flustered. I'm not frustrated that he asked the questions he asked, but I am frustrated that every time someone challenges me I go on the defensive instead of the offensive.

He started out by saying that there are a lot of teachers in his family and they have degrees and what makes me think I can teach my child without a degree. Yes. He said that. I know, I couldn't believe it either. Thing is, he didn't say it in a challenging tone - it was a very nice tone, if a tad condescending. I replied that we (Robert and I) have always thought that parents are the best teachers. He couldn't argue with that...and didn't. Then he went on to say that we should be sure and get Robert in competitive sports in school because kids need to know how to handle competition in the "real world." This led into the discussion on "socializing" our children and I assured him that we are teaching our children to be responsible, hard-working adults.

I told him that he would be surprised at how many public school teachers (and their spouses) homeschool their own children. When Robert was going into kindergarten and I was beginning to homeschool him, I even had the local kindergarten public school teacher urge me to not give up on homeschooling and to try for a few more months.

Anyway, this father later went on to tell me about his two homes, one of which is a 2500 square foot, 3-story home on Nancy Lake in Willow. He then asked me if I was a stay-at-home mom, to which I replied that I was and he said, "Oh, well then that's how you do it (meaning homeschool). It would be nice if we could do that too, but we just can't." I said, "Well of course you can't -- you have two houses to pay for. We could have "things" too, but we choose not to."

Anyway, some of this conversation might sound like it was very uncomfortable, but I assure you that it was not. It was a very nice exchange. It wasn't until I was home that I really started to think about how I handle challenges to my personal beliefs. I defend instead of going on the OFFensive. At one point he said, "I just don't understand why you would choose to homeschool." I wish I would have thrown it back and said, "Well I don't understand why you would choose public school." But that's not "politically correct" I guess.

My first post

I'd like to start this blog so that friends and family can keep up with our ever-changing lives...especially now that we are in a transition phase. Well, aren't we all, right? So I will be updating this as regularly as I am able. My mom really doesn't want me to start this as it will only mean more of my time taken, but I do have some free time. :)