Rjand4more, I hear you on all the crap kids are given. It's like literally every place kids go, kind gesture = sugar. Church, co-op, friends, the bank, literally everywhere. You can take them out for Halloween and get to know the neighbors and then throw their candy away? It's not easy. What is it with our culture and sugar needing to mark every occasion small or big.

Thanks, all. I realized after I wrote the op that candy is not food. This food issue is within the realm of normal, and I realize the Turpins were not within the realm of normal. I realize that homeschool is not even necessarily part of it either. It's just that this being in the media, lumping all these things together into one big bad ball... and food limits is something I struggle with anyway. I didn't get enough to eat for a few bad years growing up due to a parent making poor choices so I never want to feel like I'm withholding on a child.

So since the Turpin thread I've been thinking about this. It was brought up in that thread by some how it is wrong to try to put limits/ controls on kids' food intake. The whole Turpin story has me feeling uneasy anyway because it's being blasted to the world that basically this is the real face of homeschooling. I always want to be careful to look at what I'm doing and why and food is one area. I guess I can pose the question in examples to get feedback. So there varying scenarios but here is one: our family had a rather large stash of Halloween candy. The 7 year old would live on sugar alone if she could. She is also very small in stature. Real wholesome foods are offered to her all the time. She mostly refuses. If left to make all her own choices she will eat plain white bread for every meal (I buy white bread so she'll eat pb ad j sandwiches... she won't eat other "weird" healthy bread) and then candy for dessert . Is it wrong to tell her "no" when she asks for candy 15 times a day? Is it wrong to encourage her to eat things she doesn't want to eat? Is it wrong to let her be hungry because she's not getting a chocolate chip granola bar instead of the chicken and vegetables that we're eating?

I don't like pods. It doesn't seem cost effective to me. Plus yes people use way too much laundry detergent at the laundromat. You can sometimes wash your clothes without putting any detergent in at all because of how much residue is usually left. I've tried it and watched the load suds right up from residue only.

Lol. Yes my kids are more on the hooligan side of the spectrum. Our laundromat options are good for washing but not for much else besides watching telenovelas or weird low budget crime shows on the TV. But thanks for the input, all. It's not ideal for the homeschool family, and late night pee/ puke on the bedding situations etc but yes being able to wash everything at once is the big advantage.

Thanks, ladies. Going once a week early by myself and doing a massive wash is probably the best compromise considering everything.

Long story short, homeownership is wonderful most of the time. Lol. Big, expensive, not-easy-or-cheap-to-fix problem going on with the pipes that connect to the washing machine. The laundromat is a part of my life right now. Anyone else? How often does a family of 5 need to go to the laundromat? I have it at twice a week right now. Going there is much better and easier during the day (not crowded etc, not having to wait for dh to get home from work so I don't have to take the kids and be there late). But laundromat time ends up taking up prime homeschool time.

So first of all thank you to whoever suggested the "I survived" book series. My oldest has finally been able to forget about his mindset of "I hate reading/ books". He can't get enough of those books. He can read but he just... won't. DH and I read him those books aloud because he asks us to. We regularly encourage him to try reading to himself and he says he can't enjoy it because he reads too slow to himself and doesn't understand every word so he just gives up. Anyway my throat gets tired from all that reading aloud. I don't mind it but I want to know how I can get him to where he can read for himself and actually enjoy it but I'm not sure how to go about that. Any ideas?

EmseB I have to say you have quite the good point too and what you described lines up with my experience as well. There was more than one side to it for sure. I remember wearing a large t shirt for an adult because it's all I could find going to school one day in 4th grade and being subject to kids outside the classroom that morning saying only tramps wear shirts that big. One of a million examples I could give. So yeah. There's definitely that. Insult added to injury is a reality for public school kids who come from troubled homes.

Tibbie those are some good points. And thank you homemommy, yes there were adults along the way that expressed care and concern even if they didn't much get involved. And yes I had friends houses to go to where I got a glimpse of what was more normal. Homeschooling would never have happened in my case because getting rid of me each day (at public school) was counted as a positive. And I have no idea how homeschool would have compounded the situation. Also mine was more neglect at that time than abuse. But I'm just saying with others children can be woefully mistreated in "public" settings too.

Homemommy83 that lines up with my non-religious, public school experience completely. I am amazed when I look back with all the supposedly caring and responsible adults I came into contact each day, no one really ever did jack sh!t to intervene when I was going home every day to drugs, no food etc.

For what it's worth, as a child (age 8 and beyond when my parents split and the much less responsible party got main custody) I lived with a drug using adult who didn't bother to buy groceries and things like that. I was in public school the whole time. I went to school almost every day and the teachers just thought I was willfully doing poorly when I was just hungry. There's the idea that people care and want to get involved and that's so often not the case. Not that we shouldn't do anything but one of the points I agree with in this thread is that homeschooling doesn't necessarily have a whole lot to do with this case.

I came here to see what everyone was saying. Saw this story in the news and was disturbed. Maybe this couple started doing drugs? Anyway there's a lot of stuff that doesn't add up. Hopefully more details will comes out. I can see why people start worrying about their own homeschooling... it's hard not to take it personally when homeschooling has to be part of the headline involving total nutcases.

I haven't been around here much these days. Just wanted to say hello and that I'm still homeschooling, coming to terms with my stress and ideas of what homeschool should be. I'm not a Type A personality, I'm not a curriculum hoarder (nor am I in the position financially to be one), we aren't attending and signed up for all the things, we don't fit some other people's ideas of a proper homeschool household. It is what it is. I find that once we truly do the best we can with what we have, and we have a lot, we're blessed, we're actually getting more school done. Part of why I haven't been around here is that I'm using my free time to pick up the guitar again. A couple of you may remember that I shared I played electric guitar in rock n roll bands in my late teens/ early 20's and then I almost didn't touch a guitar for a decade. Part of it was there was so much bad that came out of my life at that time (drugs etc). Plus I sold my guitar when I was pregnant with my first. My life changed dramatically over time and I partly needed a reset. But recently I realized the bad things weren't the guitar's fault. I was sitting at church and realized I was ready to ask the worship band if they needed a guitar player and I did. So hopefully I can do well at the audition when it comes. In the meantime I'm doing my best to forget about what a 37 year old homeschool stay at home mom (female none the less... pretty unusual for electric guitar) should be doing. So if you want to see my attempts at a few cover songs I like, check these out. They're made with an old Cannon Powershot, played on DH's cheap fake Stratocaster guitar (the red guitar in the background he actually made from scratch), with my 3 yo finding his way in every video. It's real life. If I can do it, anyone can. Lol. Also I'm happy to be one of the very few women you can find on youtube playing electric guitar without a low cut top and push-up bra (or general lack of clothing). They usually happen to have a couple million views :001_rolleyes: Here's 3 vids. I just this morning uploaded my latest (The one I put up today)

In my experience walmart brand underwear (Geranimals for toddlers) is basically throwing money in the garbage. Hanes for toddlers is a few dollars more for a package and lasts pretty well on my big beefy active 3 yo.