For the most part, I haven’t had to deal with too much criticism of my decision to homeschool. Sure, a family member often touted the benefits of public school (until she started homeschooling her own ten years later).
And one of my best friends in Texas often talked about kids who “live in a bubble.” But, she’s now homeschooling her own, as well.
Most people don’t say anything at all – positive or negative – about homeschooling. I do know people who have faced a barrage of negative feedback about their decision to homeschool their kids, though.
If faced with negativity, how can you handle negativity about homeschooling?
Handling Negativity About Homeschooling
This is YOUR Decision
First and foremost, remember that this decision is yours. You have to do what is best for YOUR family.
No one else is responsible for raising your children so no one – except your spouse – should have a say in your academic decisions.
Now, I know that most people who voice concerns aren’t doing so to be mean. I believe that most of them are just uninformed or base their opinions on stereotypes not on actual people they know.
So take their questions and concerns with a grain of salt. Thank them for their concern, and remember why you decided to embark on this journey in the first place.
Why Did You Start This Journey?
When faced with criticism or negativity, remember why you made the decision to homeschool your family in the first place.
Did you desire to meet the needs of your special learner? Was your goal to provide a better education than your local public school? Did you want to build your children’s education on a spiritual foundation?
Whatever your goal was to begin with, hold tight to that. Above everything else, I bet your desire to homeschool was grounded in the fact that you are doing what is right for YOUR family.
So, no matter what anyone else says, focus on that.
It Will Speak for Itself
The benefits of homeschooling will speak for themselves. One of the only people in my life to ever question my decision to homeschool really came around to it when Emma was in about 2nd or 3rd grade – about 7 years into my homeschool journey.
Emma was sharing some of her recent lapbooks with this person. This naysayer looked up at me amazed at all Emma knew about whatever topic they were discussing and admitted that she would never receive this level of education in the public school system.
That was the last time I heard anything negative about homeschooling from her.
If you do some research, you can easily find statistics about test scores and college admissions. However, I don’t focus on those numbers. I look at my kids and how they are thriving, and I know that this was the right decision for our family.
Your turn:
Have you ever dealt with negativity toward your decision to homeschool? How do you handle it?
Encouragement for Homeschool Moms
Below, I’ve featured just a handful of books meant to encourage homeschool moms that will help your readers celebrate their favorite characters. You should be able to find them at your local library or bookstore. If you can’t find them locally, you can click each image cover to purchase them on Amazon.Creating Homeschool Balance – “Creating Homeschool Balance” will help you understand what balance looks like, feels like, and how to create it. Your Goals This Year – No matter which kind of homeschool parent you are, this book will help you understand the stages of homeschooling high school, put you on the path to success, and keep you from feeling overwhelmed. You can homeschool through high school, and here are the tools to help you. Scheduling: The Secret to Homeschool Sanity – When you homeschool, it’s important to take time to plan and rest, and not just work, work, work! Using schedules in your homeschool can help you avoid burnout.
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yah before I even had a kid I would FB about homeschoolng. my sibs would FB back saying how stupid I am and that I could not homeschool. I now have 1 kid. I home school. she is almost 4 and is done with what most kids do at 4 yrs old. We like most homeschooler start K in the summer fall to come at 4 yrs old. She will do 1st math tho. The sibs are the clueless ones. and I have not spoken with them sense I got prego. they are not saved. most of them are so far the other way we will not let them influence our child with the evil. got to look at the source of the negative bashing.
I always find it baffling when people feel the need to judge other parent’s decisions. You found some brilliant ways to handle the judgement.
I know! Isn’t this mothering gig tough enough without having to deal with judgmental people? Why can’t we all come together in support? Our end-goals are all the same no matter what the journey looks like.
As parents we are faced with daily decisions that may run counter to what others may choose…but that is what being a grown-up is. Learning to be responsible for our decisions and hoping for the best. I haven’t had much negative blowback from our choice to homeschool but some people do question it. To each their own seems to be the best reply.
Yes! I love the statement about being responsible for our decisions and hoping for the best. Isn’t that what we do with every parenting decision we make?
I’m so sorry that your family isn’t supportive, but applaud you for doing what you feel is best for your family.
Hi. Your points are well made. I started home school when it wasn’t common back in 1990. Much more difficult time to home school – on the other hand I was like a new world pioneer.
A few misinformed, envious, jealous people are outspoken but for the most part people are just curious. My husbands family gave us the most grief about what my kids would be “missing”. But like you mentioned, as time marched on and my kids were more than on track education-wise, got along well with adults and children of all ages and seems “normal”, they backed off. My biggest question of course was about socialization, a hilarious question or comment in my opinion. I wished now, I would have answered “What about it? Have you heard the socializing going on in public school recently?”. But I didn’t. I was nice and explained what we did to cover that. 🙂
I home schooled my two kids through high school. They both went to college, earned Mechanical Engineering degrees and have jobs in their field. My advice? Just ignore the negative questions and comments – stay on track and true to yourself – the results will speak for themselves!
I haven’t had to many naysayers tell me anything negative about homeschooling. It is more an aire of I think you are making a mistake. My friends are supportive, but they really don’t understand how much kids really learn better in a homeschool environment.
Living in an urban school district, we haven’t really met much opposition to our decision to homeschool because of the state our city’s schools are in. The one place I have come across naysayers has been online by people who seem like they’re just restating anti-homeschool talking points.In my research for my book and my blog, I’ve become very familiar with statistics regarding homeschool vs public school, so I use those very often. Unfortunately, though, there are people out there who refuse to warm up to it no matter what anyone says.
Great post! I haven’t had many neigh sayers as our children always surprise people with their vocabularies and social abilities. But I know many homeschoolers who have dealt with this.
I think there can be good and bad to both homeschooling and traditional school options, so people should keep that in mind and just realize that, like you said, the choice is being made based on what’s best for an individual family! Whether it’s a choice like this or birthing options or something else, most of the time, choices are carefully weighed and we should just give someone our support for whatever they’ve decided. So glad you joined us again at #FridayFrivolity this week!
I totally agree!