What are the silliest comments that you have received regarding homeschooling?

[3 ladybugs]

I was just told "I hope you are not teaching them spelling!" I am not even sure what that means. You don't want my child to learn to spell because it would make you look bad, or you think that I would teach them so much worse then they are taught in public school?

 

So what have you been told?

[Miss Peregrine]

"How are they going to learn to interact with people?"

[QueenCat]

I've never heard the spelling one before. I guess the craziest one is "I couldn't stand to be with them all day, every day". Well, I did like being with mine but I certainly made sure I had breaks for adult time with hubby or with friends..........

[JustEm]

Being asked if I'm allowed to teach them something is always confusing to me. I mean even if they were in school I'd be allowed to teach them whatever I wanted at home.

[Outdoorsy Type]

"Most home schoolers are too lazy to put their kids on the bus."

[myfunnybunch]

The pediatrician who kept trying to get my then-9 y.o. ds to read the sticker that said "Hello" on it, asked if he ever got to play with other children, and when she found out from ds how many pets we have (2 cats, a dog, 2 birds, chickens) told me, "You know you have to keep things clean, right?"

 

Uh.....

 

Needless to say, we did not go back to her.

 

Homeschooling is not uncommon in our community, so most people see it as pretty normal.

[Janeway]

"That's not fair that you home school. It is giving your children an unfair advantage over mine." ha ha ha ha! Told to me by a public school teacher. And she was very serious.

[Guest]

Let's see. I got the general "that's a really bad idea. You need to rethink it. You're going to ruin their future." Oh and from my own MOTHER "what on earth makes you qualified to teach them?" I think those were the two that were the most baffling.

 

ETA- I forgot "what about math?" Because apparently school teachers get a decoder ring to unlock the barrier to understanding we regular parents don't posses.

Edited October 5, 2016 by texasmom33

[Janeway]

Oh..and from a relative... "only cult members are allowed to home school." LOL..I could not even answer that one. She got my WTF look. 

[TechWife]

"Why in the world would you do that to your son?"

 

 

[Loowit]

I was told that my kids were going to turn out to be weird.

 

I also had one of my kids specialists ask all the time how they liked online school.  She just couldn't seem to understand that we were not doing online schooling.  She never did believe me that I was homeschooling without using the online pubic school program.

 

My SIL insisted that I was ruining my DD's life experiences because she would never go to prom or school dances.  She told me that high school is the best time of life and it was wrong for me to deprive my DD of the experience.

[snowbeltmom]

"When are you going to send your kids to school and get a real job?"

[snowbeltmom]

 

My SIL insisted that I was ruining my DD's life experiences because she would never go to prom or school dances.  She told me that high school is the best time of life and it was wrong for me to deprive my DD of the experience.

 

I have been told that multiple times as well. I also was told I was ruining my kids because I was depriving them of the experience of being bullied.  Apparently, being bullied builds character. :cursing:

 

[PrairieSong]

"Homeschooling is stupid. Kids need friends and sleepovers."

 

Sheesh, I did not know what to say. It was our first year of homeschooling, eons ago, so I just replied, "You're entitled to your opinion." Now that ours are mostly grown, people see that they are not weird or socially backward. They are in college or have graduated from college. Two are married. One grandbaby. The 11th grader just started taking DE classes.

 

Oh, and they even had friends and sleepovers!

[Christine B]

"You should really think about what's best for them, not just what you want."

[PrairieSong]

I have been told that multiple times as well. I also was told I was ruining my kids because I was depriving them of the experience of being bullied. Apparently, being bullied builds character. :cursing:

 

Just tell them you will shove your kids against the wall and shake them down for lunch money, so that they will not be deprived of this important character building experience.

[Rebel Yell]

"How are they going to learn to interact with people?"

SweetChild (always homeschooled Senior) went to the homecoming dance with a boy from youth group in a neighboring school district. She knew so many people there from various activities and groups. She even recognized his friends date from yet another district because she had seen her in last year's musical. She interacted just fine. I didn't even have to give her any special socialization lessons before the dance. 🙄

 

"Most home schoolers are too lazy to put their kids on the bus."

OK well this one is true for us. 😂 Edited October 5, 2016 by Rebel Yell

[Rebel Yell]

I have been told that multiple times as well. I also was told I was ruining my kids because I was depriving them of the experience of being bullied. Apparently, being bullied builds character. :cursing:

 

Please. People are people. We've had our absolute worst bullying from fellow homeschoolers. 😡

Spread the word- maybe homeschooling will be more respected if people know that homeschoolers are actual human beings, not immune from the cr@p that goes on in schools. 🙄

[FaithManor]

"How will she ever learn to stand in line?"

 

:svengo:  :svengo:  :svengo:

 

Because ya know, apparently I would be preventing her from standing in line at the check out, the movie theater, the art gallery, the museum, the registration desk at camp, the........

 

And is this really that important of a life skill that one can not "learn it on the fly"???? Really???? :toetap05:

[Heathermomster]

My mom thought homeschooling was unfair to DD, and she felt her education would be lacking. I then asked her what precisely was her problem with Latin, ballet, and violin?

 

I was preggo at the same with two very close friends. It wasn't planned that way..just kinda happened. When DD was born, she was the foundiing member of a super girl posse.

Edited October 6, 2016 by Heathermomster

[Heathermomster]

Yes, DS has experienced some outstanding bullying at the cover.  I've made some amazing phone calls since DS left the classroom.

[SparklyUnicorn]

Well just yesterday someone was crapping on homeschooling (to someone else while I waited at the dance studio) that she is glad so and so is not homeschooling anymore because kids need to be in school in order to be socialized.

 

I didn't say a word. 

 

 

[Tess in the Burbs]

my stepmom(who had no kids of her own) was worried my kids wouldn't learn to sing in a 'round'  where groups sing the same song but starting at different points....I mean seriously, singing a round is so random???

[Arcadia]

My in-laws keep asking my hubby when our kids are going to college :lol: However my elderly in-laws are not from states and somehow my hubby's "lecture" on US college admission did not sink in.

 

From neighbors and aquaintances, the most common comment was whether my kids are going to college early because all homeschoolers in my region are apparently accelerated.  That comment started when my oldest reached 4 feet/1.2m tall. 

[FaithManor]

Well just yesterday someone was crapping on homeschooling (to someone else while I waited at the dance studio) that she is glad so and so is not homeschooling anymore because kids need to be in school in order to be socialized.

 

I didn't say a word. 

When these statements get made, if the speaker knows that I or others homeschool, I am always tempted to say, "Too bad it didn't work for you. Had you been properly socialized you would know just how rude you are being."

 

I never say it, but.....

[Arcadia]

my stepmom(who had no kids of her own) was worried my kids wouldn't learn to sing in a 'round'  where groups sing the same song but starting at different points....I mean seriously, singing a round is so random???

 

My DS10's flute teacher asked if he knew what a round was last week and he looked confused.  This kid sings rounds in the car with DS11 and hubby very often, he just forgot what is a round.

[JustEm]

When these statements get made, if the speaker knows that I or others homeschool, I am always tempted to say, "Too bad it didn't work for you. Had you been properly socialized you would know just how rude you are being."

 

I never say it, but.....

I am absolutely using that the next time I hear a comment like that.

[SparklyUnicorn]

When these statements get made, if the speaker knows that I or others homeschool, I am always tempted to say, "Too bad it didn't work for you. Had you been properly socialized you would know just how rude you are being."

 

I never say it, but.....

 

Yeah she doesn't know. I'm new to the studio.  I hope she doesn't strike up a conversation with me. 

 

I don't care.  She can have whatever opinion she wants, but it's a stupid comment.

[Kerileanne99]

'It is incredibly selfish of you to want to homeschool your child just so that you can control every little thing they hear or believe.' said by a close family 'friend.'

 

Oookkkkaaayyy. Because it wouldn't be so much easier with my uber high-strung kid to put her on a bus in the morning and let others deal with her. Or plan hours of lessons for her. Or all of it:)

And hello, met my kid? I control nothing about what that kid does or thinks, lol:)

[6packofun]

"How will she ever learn to stand in line?"

 

 

 

Yes, this was the weirdest one I got, too!  And it was followed by, "...or to sit and listen??" like they currently were incapable of the most mundane human tasks.  lol

[LMD]

I get 'are you allowed to do that' and 'so the school sends you books' a lot.

What I want to reply - "of course I'm allowed, they're my kids not wards of the state" and "if they did, I'd get a good laugh"

Because I'm a good representative, I instead say - "yes, homeschooling is a valid and legal choice" and "no, but there is a wealth of amazing resources available for homeschoolers"

[Guest]

How're you going to make sure you get 180 days of schooling done?

[SparklyUnicorn]

How're you going to make sure you get 180 days of schooling done?

 

You could have fun with this one.  Say something like, "Oh well who is stupid now?  There are only 175 days in a year!" 

[MercyA]

Someone was worried about my child not experiencing enough peer pressure.

 

Another person wanted to know how long our class periods were for each subject.

 

Someone else thought my daughter would be receiving her diploma from our co-op.

 

Really, they just don't understand, so I try to cut them some slack.

[MercyA]

"You should really think about what's best for them, not just what you want."

 

:smilielol5:  :smilielol5:  :smilielol5:

 

What I *want* is to lie in bed with wine and chocolate all day. 

[OneStepAtATime]

BIL assumed that I was given a list of textbooks to work from and when he found out that I got to choose my own resources he was dumbfounded.  He was afraid my kids would be missing the vital information that all other kids were getting.  Turns out he thought every single school in every single country across the planet used the same textbooks (just translated into different languages) so all kids could learn the same vital things in exactly the same way.  (He has only ever lived in one town his entire life).

 

The most common comment in my area:  "Is that legal?"

 

Took a cooking class with a woman who taught history in PS.  She found out I was homeschooling and DD and DS were not studying Texas history that year.  DS was in 4th and DD in 7th, which are the years that Texas history is taught in school.  She was horrified and insisted I HAD to teach them Texas History that year.  She insisted that they MUST learn Texas History in 4th and 7th grade and I should not be waiting until they were in 5th and 8th like I was planning.  That it was absolutely essential that they both have two runs through Texas History and once DD got to High School there wouldn't be time.  She even ordered textbooks for me to use (I did not ask her to).

[Slache]

:smilielol5: :smilielol5: :smilielol5:

 

What I *want* is to lie in bed with wine and chocolate all day.

Why don't you? That's all I do.

[Guest]

 

 

Took a cooking class with a woman who taught history in PS.  She found out I was homeschooling and DD and DS were not studying Texas history that year.  DS was in 4th and DD in 7th, which are the years that Texas history is taught in school.  She was horrified and insisted I HAD to teach them Texas History that year.  She insisted that they MUST learn Texas History in 4th and 7th grade and I should not be waiting until they were in 5th and 8th like I was planning.  That it was absolutely essential that they both have two runs through Texas History and once DD got to High School there wouldn't be time.  She even ordered textbooks for me to use (I did not ask her to).

 

What IS it with this state and the Texas history freaks?!? I totally hear you on that. We've gotten the same thing.

 

WHAT? You didn't devote two years to the study the study of one state? (That hasn't even been around for 200 years.) Why on earth would you study world history when you could be spending all of that time studying Texas?? And these people were being quite serious. They might not be able to tell you how many World Wars there have been, but dammit, they can tell you all about Santa Ana. 

[happypamama]

The only somewhat negative or questioning comment I ever got was from a young cashier in the grocery store when my oldest was 2 or 3. She wanted to know if DD would be going to preschool soon, and I said no, that we were going to homeschool. She seemed confused at the idea, like it just didn't occur to her that a parent could teach a child. Meanwhile, my toddler was naming letters she saw and counting all of the stuff in the cart and carrying on a complete conversation with perfect speech and sentences, sounding like a mini adult. I just said, "I think I'll do okay." Then she wanted to know if I knew that public school was free. Yeah, sure it is.

 

That was in PG County, Maryland, outside of DC. I had already intended to homeschool before we had kids, but PG County wasn't known for the best schools, so since we didn't care, it less us pay less for a house. We moved away before DD hit school age anyway, but upon meeting our new neighbors here, we got immediately positive comments and things like, "Oh, cool, my cousin homeschools." Nobody here has ever been anything but complimentary.

Edited October 5, 2016 by happypamama

[OneStepAtATime]

What IS it with this state and the Texas history freaks?!? I totally hear you on that. We've gotten the same thing.

 

WHAT? You didn't devote two years to the study the study of one state? (That hasn't even been around for 200 years.) Why on earth would you study world history when you could be spending all of that time studying Texas?? And these people were being quite serious. They might not be able to tell you how many World Wars there have been, but dammit, they can tell you all about Santa Ana. 

LOL.  I love Texas.  I really do, with all its flaws and everything.  But the way she reacted to the idea that I wasn't teaching Texas history that year was so over the top I felt like we were in a badly written sitcom.  I tried sharing how pumped DS was about Ancient History plus the World Wars and he was happily studying both simultaneously and with much enthusiasm and depth.  It seemed a really bad idea to then turn around and tell him "I don't care what you WANT to study about history, you are now in 4th grade.  That means you HAVE to study Texas history this year and again in 7th grade.  To bad, so sad, suck it up sunshine."  She was quite literally horrified that I was letting my son choose to study these things as a 4th grader.  4th graders are old enough to follow a "proper progression of learning".  Okaaaaay...

[Anne in CA]

I home schooled for 17 years so I heard lots of these things and different combinations of them. The most silly to me was, "If public school was good enough for me it will have to be good enough for my kids." Because, of course, you would never want to give your kids an advantage that you never had, lol. I've done everything I could to give my kids advantages I never had. It would never occur to me that I should prevent my children from having a better life than me but A LOT of people don't want their kids to have things better than they did.

[Crimson Wife]

I've heard a number of variations of "You're being selfish. Instead of homeschooling your children, you should be working to improve public schools so that it will benefit the kids of parents who don't care as much as you do." Somehow I've never overheard a similar comment made to private school parents. :glare:

[Wheres Toto]

What IS it with this state and the Texas history freaks?!? I totally hear you on that. We've gotten the same thing.

 

WHAT? You didn't devote two years to the study the study of one state? (That hasn't even been around for 200 years.) Why on earth would you study world history when you could be spending all of that time studying Texas?? And these people were being quite serious. They might not be able to tell you how many World Wars there have been, but dammit, they can tell you all about Santa Ana. 

 

I went to college in Texas and this was one of the weirdest things for me.  Even our college history had this Texas emphasis and "you guys remember this from high school" was said A LOT.  I lived my whole life in New Jersey.  We learned a little bit about Texas in the course of US History but it sure wasn't emphasized very much.  We also didn't spend an entire year on "New Jersey History".  We just learned about it as it came up in US History.  

 

ETA:  To the original question, I've heard the comment about having to get materials from the school a lot, complete disbelief about not having to test or report.  As for making my kids weird, they will gladly tell you that they would be weird no matter how they schooled.

Edited October 5, 2016 by Where's Toto?

[FaithManor]

My mil asked me how my kids would learn cursive. Um, you DO know that I taught that very same skill in ps and I have very nice handwriting???? Thanks. Got it covered. 

 

I got the bully question too, from a state senator! He went on to explain that if I would put as much time in at the ps as I do with my kids, the world would be better. Yeah, I tried that for years. Got nowhere. 

The most idiotic comment that my friend, a licensed secondary ed teacher received was, "But you aren't qualified to teach your own kid?"

 

You know because apparently the magical education fairy resides at the public school so of course with a bachelor's degree in education she was NOT equipped to educate her own child because the magic wasn't at her house!

 

:smash:  :smash:  :smash:

[The Girls' Mom]

I was told by a very angry public school teacher when I pulled my oldest daughter out of 6th grade that "She would never be a leader in our community" and by pulling her out of ps I was "depriving the other children of a great role model".  

 

I hope he is still around and shows up at the public library.  She's 19 now, and works there.  She mentors middle and high school kids every single day when they hang out there after school, and she's becoming very well known as the cool librarian that is good with kids.  (small community with the community center and schools nearby, so it is always filled with kids that don't have parents at home after school).  

Edited October 5, 2016 by The Girls' Mom

[Tenaj]

Years ago we took a vacation at the beginning of March to Texas because my eldest was fascinated by the Alamo. A few months later my SIL declared that it wasn't fair that we could take a vacation in the middle of the school year and that we should never do that again because it wasn't fair to all the kids who couldn't go. Mind you, we would never have invited them to go with us anyway but it was a weird statement. She went so far as to state that we should only take vacations in the summer like "everyone else".

[AmandaVT]

"Most home schoolers are too lazy to put their kids on the bus."

 

Ha! This one isn't entirely untrue in my case! :-) Our bus comes by so early and drop off is over 9 hours later. One of my (numerous) reasons for homeschooling is to avoid the long and early bus ride!

 

The silliest/weirdest comment I've gotten is from my brother. He informed me that when people homeschool, they're taking valuable resources away from the community by keeping their kids out of the school systems. He very much believes I'm somehow hurting my community and the future of our state by homeschooling for some reason.

[Arcadia]

When my kids were elementary school age, I have people commenting that I should use the public school as "free childcare" and get a part time morning job. Here the wage is good because of the cost of living, if you can get a job.

 

.He informed me that when people homeschool, they're taking valuable resources away from the community by keeping their kids out of the school systems. He very much believes I'm somehow hurting my community and the future of our state by homeschooling for some reason.

My district gets $5,600 per K-8 child in school from property tax a few years ago so that is partially true. I have not check what is current figure per student. The school superintendent did complain in a newsletter that the district lost $156k to charter schools as reimbursement for teaching my school district kids.

 

Both homeschoolers' parents and private schools kids' parents are equally slammed as selfish by some public school moms for wanting better for their kids.

[Janeway]

"How will she ever learn to stand in line?"

 

:svengo:  :svengo:  :svengo:

 

Because ya know, apparently I would be preventing her from standing in line at the check out, the movie theater, the art gallery, the museum, the registration desk at camp, the........

 

And is this really that important of a life skill that one can not "learn it on the fly"???? Really???? :toetap05:

The car pick up line at public schools is proof that public school does not teach how to stand in line.

[idnib]

I was just told "I hope you are not teaching them spelling!" I am not even sure what that means. You don't want my child to learn to spell because it would make you look bad, or you think that I would teach them so much worse then they are taught in public school?

 

I can't defend the comment, but I wonder if that person was of the "don't bother with spelling/cursive because spellcheck/typing is the wave of the future" opinion.

 

my stepmom(who had no kids of her own) was worried my kids wouldn't learn to sing in a 'round'  where groups sing the same song but starting at different points....I mean seriously, singing a round is so random???

 

 

Very random! That said, I have had so much trouble getting my kids to sing in rounds I may enroll them just for this. 

Edited October 6, 2016 by idnib