I realize that true stay at home moms have schedules, and they have their kids in activities, and they plan things to do with their kids to keep everyone from going crazy. This is in direct contrast to the helter-skelterness of summer at home with my kids. I rarely have anything planned in advance ... we just do what we do when we do it ... so we spend a lot of time bored and driving each other to distraction. This is because I am too lazy to "make plans." I spend all year planning lessons down to the smallest of details, so I really just want to stare at walls during the summer ... and read Young Adult novels ... which is a whole other post.
My second item is really about being allowed to keep my own children. I get insanely frustrated when I am trying to teach my own kids something because I know them. I know what my kids are capable of, so I get frustrated when they wont't focus and do it. I know when my kids are rushing through something because they want to go watch TV or whatever, so I get frustrated they aren't taking it seriously. Then I'm using a stern voice, and they are crying, and I'm telling them to just do it, and no one is having any fun, and now they hate school and learning. And I'm sure turning my own children off of learning goes against some teacher-like Hippocratic oath I had to take my first year teaching, resulting in the immediate revocation of my teaching certificate. Then we all starve and lose the house and CPS takes my kids away. Lovely.
I know my limits. I can put up with 120 14-year-old crazies in the midst of hormone changes and middle school drama. I can have (nearly) endless patience for their questions and their comments and their attempts to throw the entire class off-task. But when it comes to my own kids, I am a mess. So I leave it to the professionals to teach them the academic stuff and keep them entertained during the 9 1/2 months that are the school year. It's the least I can do for my family.
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