A horribly depressing thought.... BUT, if something were to happen to you....

[missesd]

Would your spouse find a way to continue homeschooling?? Maybe you have a sister/friend/mother who could step in? Or maybe you have life insurance that would allow your spouse to stay home?

 

Hubby and I were discussing this because he was home for his 4 days off, and couldn't help a bit with the schooling. So I asked him, what would you do if something happened to me?? Of course no one *wants* to think about this, but I am glad we did and talked about it a little.

 

We have both been discussing getting life insurance, even though we are clueless as what to ask for- there is term, and something else. But aside from that, I was surprised when older siblings said they would step up to the plate to help out with the little ones. It almost makes me what to plan out the next 12 years so everyone knows what is going on and what the plan would be.

[hsbaby]

No. Mine would have them in PS. Well, maybe my mom would do it. But, dh? Nope....I don't see how he could given his job.

[dangermom]

Nope. They would be off to school. I do have life insurance, but my husband isn't cut out to be a homeschooling SAHD living off insurance. And my mom works full-time. My plan is not to die. :001_smile:

[PentecostalMom]

Yes, my MIL would take over. Dh has already decided, lol! :D We have term, on both of us. Peace of mind is well worth the inexpensive rates.

[Joaly]

We purchased enough life insurance on me, so that, if I were to die, there will be enough money for a nanny and private school tuition until my youngest graduates from high school.

[eternalknot]

My spouse and I have been separated for several years. He is supportive of homeschooling but I think if I became incompacitated he would put them into school - at least for awhile, and with my blessing. We agree that he's not the right personality to homeschool our kids on an everyday basis; it would definitely be a last resort.

 

I work outside of the home, and my life insurance would cover private school. I have a Plan B private school pre-selected, and he's on-board with that choice. I selected my life insurance policy with it in mind that private school would be in the picture.

 

My job requires frequent travel. Currently my parents help with the homeschooling, but I know it's not something they'd want to do full time. They're supportive to a point, but they really prefer the kids be enrolled somewhere.

 

If my kids were older, high school age and such, I think my husband would consider keeping them home for the rest of their schooling -- if the kids wanted. At that point he could use the private school tuition money towards a private tutor (which is legal in our state) and/or tuition at the local community college. I trust him to make that decision, in our kids' best interests :)

[Nakia]

If I were to pass away, I have enough life insurance to pay off our house and leave my husband plenty of money to send the girls to a Christian private school until graduation, I think. I don't see any way that he would be able to continue homeschooling them. He has a great job, and works Monday-Thursday.

 

We do not have a will or a definite plan to cover what would happen if we both pass at the same time. We have talked to my brother and his wife, and they are going to discuss it and let us know something in January when they come home to celebrate Christmas. If they agree, we will plan to leave them custody of our girls. They will have plenty of life insurance money to educate the kids. I am pretty sure my sister in law would be willing to homeschool them. If not, they could put them in a private school. I prefer they don't go to public school, so we have enough (term) life insurance to cover what we want them to have in terms of education. But I have to trust that if my brother and his wife feel that public school is the best option, they will do that, and then save the money for college.

 

It is hard to think about and talk about, but we've put it off long enough.

[Pretty in Pink]

We have a large enough policy on me to cover private school tuition plus a nanny if, God forbid, something were to happen to me.

[Quiver0f10]

I made my DH promise me that if I died the kids wouldn't go to PS. :D We have life insurance that he should be able to homeschool, but it would probably be some sort of school in a box or online type.

Edited November 19, 2010 by Quiver0f10

[The Girls' Mom]

We have life insurance on me to cover either private school, or an online school of some kind. My kids are old enough to stay by themselves during the day, so childcare wouldn't be an issue any longer.

[Margo out of lurking]

We purchased enough life insurance on me, so that, if I were to die, there will be enough money for a nanny and private school tuition until my youngest graduates from high school.

 

Same here--although I've never considered the nanny part, and at this point, we wouldn't need it. I even have the name of the private school tucked away with all my important computer passwords.

[AuntieM]

No. They would without a doubt end up in the local Christian school.

[KidsHappen]

WE have enough insurance on me that my hubby could stay home for 3 years. The 14 year old is probably going to finish out her school years in PS but the youngest could still possibly come back home for awhile. In any case, I think my hubby would take at least a year off to be with the girls. He can cook, clean and school better than me so I know they would be in good hands. We also have it set up so that if anything we to happen to both my hubby and I, my brother would get custody of the children and our life insurance to raise them. I have no doubt that he also would do a great job. My oldest dd would be next in line. She is already a SAHM and is planning to homeschool her son. She would let the girls continue going to school if they wanted to but she would also be there for them. My girls are incredibly blessed to have so many who love and care for them and who would take care of them if need be.

[katemary63]

I have two adult daughters, one graduated college, the other in college. Between the two of them, they have agreed that if anything happened to me, they would finish homeschooling my DD9. I have made my DH swear that my MIL will never babysit my DD9 for a single second. He agrees though so I'm not worried about it.

[cindergretta]

We have a good sized term-life policy on me. I never thought to talk to my two oldest about how they would feel about helping dh with school for the littles. I might talk with them about it, see how they feel.

 

It breaks my heart, the thought of my dc going to public school. :( My 10 y/o freaks out at the prospect and my 7 y/o is special needs. He would be labeled and it would be such a horrid struggle for him. <sigh> I don't know.

 

Sounds like it is time for a family meeting.

 

(I agree with the poster who said her plan is to not die. I can get behind that!)

[Denisemomof4]

No. We have plenty of life insurance to take care of me and the kids should hubby die, but if I die, the girls would have to go to school and dad would continue to work full time to provide for the family.

 

I think about this because dd10 would get TONS of migraines in PS due to all the flourescent lighting. :glare: I hope and pray she never have to go. I do think about this. She has 7 years to go. Younger dd would be fine anywhere. Boys have been in school for a few years now.

 

I worry about my animals, too.

[babysparkler]

It almost makes me what to plan out the next 12 years so everyone knows what is going on and what the plan would be.

 

:lol: This is so me.

[the4Rs]

We have NO private school options within driving distance, so if something happened to me the kids would most likely go to PS but I'm hoping my pastor's wife might be willing to teach them...or if nothing else my MIL will be retiring in a few years and perhaps she could.

 

I have good life insurance on me so my husband doesn't have to worry financially.

[EthiopianFood]

I really don't think he would. We do have life insurance, but I'm not sure how he would use it.... I've already thought about how I could use the money if HE died so I could continue to homeschool until graduation. We do have very good charter schools here though, so money might not be as much of a factor if it was me who died. But no, I just don't see him doing it. I guess I would hope our kid/s would have access to excellent extracurricular lessons and experiences, and that would be the trade off.

[Jean in Newcastle]

The kids would go to ps.

[JenneinCA]

No.

 

The kids would end up in a local school. If I had enough time to help with figuring it out then probably a charter school. If not, it would be the public school we are zoned for.

 

We do have life insurance on me. But not enough for him to stop working for an extended period of time.

[Aggie]

We have life insurance on me so dh could stay home.

[Crimson Wife]

If something were to happen to me, DH has said he'd try to convince his mom (who is a retired elementary teacher) to move out here and pay her to HS the kids. I'm dubious that she'd accept, so most likely they'd end up in one of the local Catholic schools.

 

If something were to happen to both of us, the kids would go live with my parents and attend the Sudbury Valley School using the life insurance proceeds.

[amey311]

I think it COULD be done because DH works from home, and he could have the boys do more independent work. I don't know if he would, but I'm guessing he would at least in the short term as a way of maintaining normalcy for the kids. He might have his mom or my mom come out and help, and both would be capable of that.

 

We do have discussions about where I find stuff for their education and vague plans, and even if he didn't know my homeschooling friends, my closer friends (who he does know) DO and would help him get in contact with those people if he wanted to continue beyond the current year.

 

I think my younger son would be okay in a public school setting, even immediately. My older son would have a VERY hard time with two transitions. VERY. DH would keep him home, even if it meant using some online school instead of what we've been doing.

 

My mom is retired and MIL is about to. Both are relatively healthy, and DH gets along well with both. My local friends know both of them as well, so there are structures in place that would help.

 

Thanks for posting this - it really made me think about how lucky we are here and how great our families and friends are. Even if I do not like living here (I miss the northeast), there are GREAT friends here who would come running.

[Kari C in SC]

My sister-in-law died 7 years ago. Her husband hired his sister (a teacher) to homeschool his kids. Luckily he could afford it for about 5 years. Then the economy tanked is business and he had to lay her off - literally - she was on his business payroll. His kids were older and between him and their stepmom - they figure it out. He is home a lot because he runs his business out of his home. I take his two younger kids to all the homeschool park days, etc. We all live in the same neighborhood, so it works well.

 

If something were to happen to me, I think my mom would step in and homeschool until she couldn't anymore. The amount of social security my kids would get would go for private school if it was needed. That would more than cover it and I have a small life insurance policy. Or my husband might quit working and homeschool because, again, my social security would be about the same amount of his income plus he could work from home to bring in extra. Hate to think about it, but know all too well bad things happen.

[Laura Corin]

I knew that husband would not home educate the boys. We took out life insurance so that if I died he could afford private school fees and after school care for them.

 

We have two kinds of life insurance: one is on his life only and would provide a replacement income to me until the boys left university; the second would pay off our two mortgages and is on both our lives. This latter would mean that the rental income from our second property could be used for school fees. There's no 'investment' element to either - they are just straight life insurance.

 

Laura

[mazakaal]

The kids would go into public school unless dh could find a private school to scholarship them. We don't have any friends or family nearby who could help in that way, and dh is definitely not cut out to hs. I'm with the other poster in just planning not to die for at least 12 years. ;)

[Carrie12345]

Nope. My kids would likely go to ps, and insurance would allow for some housekeeping help and child care until it becomes less necessary. He does know I don't want the younger kids in "preschool".

 

I'm good with that. Dh likes to work (you know, to a reasonable point!) and wouldn't feel comfortable being the end-all-be-all educator to 4 children. (My oldest would switch to living with his father and visiting here.)

 

I am confident that he would continue to supplement/enrich at home, and everyone will turn out okay. :)

[Mom0012]

Would your spouse find a way to continue homeschooling?? Maybe you have a sister/friend/mother who could step in? Or maybe you have life insurance that would allow your spouse to stay home?

 

Hubby and I were discussing this because he was home for his 4 days off, and couldn't help a bit with the schooling. So I asked him, what would you do if something happened to me?? Of course no one *wants* to think about this, but I am glad we did and talked about it a little.

 

We have both been discussing getting life insurance, even though we are clueless as what to ask for- there is term, and something else. But aside from that, I was surprised when older siblings said they would step up to the plate to help out with the little ones. It almost makes me what to plan out the next 12 years so everyone knows what is going on and what the plan would be.

 

 

We've discussed what would happen if I die and homeschooling would not be it. That would never, never work.

 

We have a significant term policy on me and if everything were to go as I wished, my children would live with my parents during the week and go to small private schools with part of the life insurance money and then be with my husband on the weekend. There should be enough life insurance money to take care of school and housecleaning and a number of other things for my husband. That would give my kids the closest to what they have now.

 

Of course, this is what both my husband and parents have agreed to, and it gives me peace, but you never know what decisions people will really make once you are gone. I know my husband would do a terrible job as a full time parent and my poor children would be lost. He is affectionate and loving, but he is not able to discipline consistently, he often isn't aware of what their needs are, and he also has a very demanding job that requires many hours from him.

 

I have kind of a unique perspective because when I met him, he came with a 6 year old daughter from a previous marriage who he was pretty much raising on his own. While she was he center of his universe, there were many, many areas that he was lacking as a parent, so I know exactly what would happen with my kids. It kills me to think about it.

 

Lisa

Edited November 19, 2010 by LisaTheresa

[Mom0012]

I'm with the other poster in just planning not to die for at least 12 years. ;)

 

:iagree: Yes, really, this is the best plan of all.:001_smile:

 

Lisa

[Gwenhwyfar]

blahhhh you're right about it being a depressing thought!

 

anyway - no, dh wouldn't homeschool. he'd never have the patience to spend pretty much every waking hour with the kids. and no, we don't have any family members that would do it.

[NanceXToo]

No, I'm sure he wouldn't.

[TravelingChris]

I only have high schoolers so they would continue homeschooling particularly this year, when I have teen drivers at home. I suspect my dh would take retirement and get a job where either he had more flexibility to help or have enough money to get youngest dd tutors and cab service for her activities until she is old enough to drive.

[Renee in NC]

No. We aren't homeschooling anymore anyway, but even when we were that was never a consideration.

[FaithManor]

We have life insurance on me that would be enough to provide for tutoring services. We don't have a good private school close enough by for DH to commute the kids to with his work schedule in the mornings. (The private school I taught at years ago is fantastic but 45 minutes away and only K-8 and our guys are all ready 5th, 7th, and 8th.)

 

So, he would hire my dear homeschooling friend T, to teach English grammar, history, and oversee some electives for high school. He would teach math in the evenings and dd, our graduate in paramedic school/pre-med student would carve out some time to teach science and help her dad out. I would feel bad about her putting aside her current plans to try to go to med-school in Australia, but there wouldn't be any stopping her because she believes so strongly in homeschooling and she would be determined to help. He would hire the principal from my school to oversee their high school writing (she's a published author and my dearest "sister" and since she'd only need to see the boys a couple times per week for this, he would make it work) and all three of them would have to study German for their high school language because he can hire the tutoring out for that too. He can't remember any of his high school or college Spanish and he wouldn't have the time to research foreign language programs.

 

If my sister moves back here after her divorce is final, she would probably just take over the whole thing except for algebra 2, trigonometry, and physics. She'd still leave that to dh and dd but the boys would all be forced into French because she triple majored in college (Pre-Law/History, Psychology, and French). Ds 13 would fight her on the French, big time!

 

Faith

[littlebug42]

We have sufficient life insurance on me to pay off all remaining debt, including student loans, and our house etc. Not enough for dh to quit working though. My sister who has two homeschooled teenagers would take over homeschooling my girls. She is actually registered as her own private school here and could easily register them under her school name. My sister also lives about 2 minutes from dh's work so it would be convenient. The public schools here are in no way an option - EVER!

[mom31257]

We were talking about this. My dh is a public school teacher. We don't think financially he could stay home long term, but could probably finish out a school year. He would probably try to find a Christian school where he could teach and the kids go to school. I did the filing system this summer, so we talked about how much help that would be to him if he had to take over.

 

The topic actually came up with my best friend when we were discussing a situation with someone else. I've had some crazy health problems this year and I expressed my concern over if something happened. She said she would take the kids in a heartbeat (to school them, that is). So that is an option.

 

I don't think he would be happy to homeschool, so I'm fine with the option of the kids going wherever he could find to work. If we couldn't homeschool, that is what we would do anyway, although it would probably be me teaching at their school.

 

If he were the one to die, I think I would be able to continue homeschooling because the social security payment is more for him than me since he's been working. We also have a bigger policy on him than me.

 

It is a depressing thought, but it is one that we should all discuss and plan.

[elegantlion]

No, dh would not homeschool. We just moved and I haven't researched any private school available, but he'd probably end up in a private school.

[mom4him]

I am an older mom, soon to be 62, so I have thought about it and talked to our oldest son. He would somehow take over their schooling. It might be enrolling them in the Christian school that he works at but they would not go into ps.

We do have small insurance policies but nothing big enough to sustain. My dh isn't disciplined enough to MAKE my ds sit down and do his work so I know that would never work.

I am with the one poster that says she simply plans on not dieing. :D

[hsmom]

No. There is no way. Now if something happened to me he would have to find someone else to step in or find a new job also. We do not have any family close enough to help or any that would for that matter.

 

I know saying having someone step in is not right, but he has a job that he is gone every other week and well sometimes he doesn't get days off. So, he would have to quit his job find another one which would be way lower pay like 1/2 of what he makes now and they would struggle. I would never want them to struggle! I would expect them to do whatever it took to keep living comfortably with or without me.

 

Now I know many do not agree with this, but this is how I truly feel.

[cathmom]

My dh would quit working (at least the job he has now, teaching ps) to homeschool our dc. I purposely got about 3 times as much life insurance on myself as I did on him, so he would feel comfortable doing that.

 

We have life insurance on me so dh could stay home.

 

This is our plan too. I do have more life insurance than dh (not 3 times as much, though! I wish!). He would most likely enroll the dc in Seton or something similar. I haven't worked enough to get any decent amount of SS, so that was the reason for me having more life insurance. If dh died, we could pay off debts, have significant savings, and live off the SS. I do worry that he wouldn't be as careful with the money as needed, because it does seem like such a large amount, but hopefully he would be.

[CalicoKat]

The kids would be enrolled in PS or a private affordable school.

 

This is why I do the yearly achievement testing so that there's a history and record of their progress.

 

If both of us are gone the kids will go to a boarding school and vacation at the home of our appointed non-family guardians.

[Mejane]

I am fairly well through the hs'ing years. Dd is in college and son does online high school, which he would continue. It used to stress me out a lot to think about this, though, as my dh has neither the time nor the inclination to hs.

[delaney]

They would be getting on the bus. DH has no interest on HSing and my mom does not support it. Now if he were to die......by accident would be the most profitable:lol:....I would take a year to travel the world with my kids and homeschool them on the way. Take a fulltime nanny as well. His policy is 2 million with a clause to double in the even of an accident.

[Wheres Toto]

We have the same amount of life insurance on both dh and I. Not enough to quit working forever but enough to pay off the house and buy a few years of not worrying about it.

 

DH would love to be a SAH dad and would do a great job teaching the kids. I don't know that he would do it exactly as I do but that doesn't really matter to me. If something happened to me, I'm not sure what he would do. It may depend on how old he was at the time (he's 54 now), if he was close to retirement or not.

[Chloe]

Yes, we have figured all this in with our life-insurance policies. Dh would be able to quit working (at least full-time) to homeschool or hire a private full-time tutor for the dc.

[Karen in CO]

We have enough insurance so that dh should be able to do this. My mom could stay with them (which she does about half the year anyway). However, I just don't see that either of them would have the patience to hs to girls. :( There is a terrific choice school that starts at 5th grade here that I would like my older to go to and the younger would go to an IB choice school in the neighborhood. However, I don't know that I had the patience to do this either until I had some experience. Maybe they would be just fine homeschooling.