Oh Hi

Guess I Am Supposed To Write Stuff Here?

And here too? All right. I will. A few things. Home schooling keeps me very busy. It is somewhat like having a second job, which is perfectly fine, but it comes with a tad bit of sacrifice of certain leisurely pleasures, blogging to name just one. I think it is totally worth all of it though. It is going splendidly so far, even though the kiddo sometimes wants to gaff off the work, I still see progress being made, and I believe in my ultimate heart of hearts that it was the best thing to do. In fact, I wish I had done this years ago, but we can't turn back time, so we just have to make do with what we have now.

The house has gone to the weeds. Somehow when I imagined myself homeschooling, I had this image of being able to do housework, my own school work, and give the kiddo her lessons, pretty much all at the same time. Don't fault me for thinking too big, I really thought I could do it. Then, one day I had an epiphany, I realized, I can't do all of that. I can't work, go to school, and home school, so I gave up the most obvious choice, I dropped all of the classes I had registered for before school even started. I thought, "I had my chance to go to college and I screwed it off, it is her turn for an education, not mine." With that, I knew I could not serve 3 masters, it would be just too much. Best decision I could have made if you ask me.

I want to talk about something. You know Rodney Dangerfield's routine about not getting any respect? I sometimes think I have the same problem. Lately I've been asking myself, why is it people think they have the right to question my personal choices and decisions? I mean really, if I tell you I am homeschooling my child, do you think you have the right to question that decision? Do you think you have the right to grill me about socialization, and how I am doing it, and what I am doing? I mean seriously. I have had people actually look dumbfounded that I would make such a choice. Here is a thought, I don't have to answer to you. All right?

So, I have patented an answer for the nosy busy bodies out there, who did not give a hoot about my faulty decision in the past to leave my precious child in the public education system which was a complete and utter failure for her: "Well...I gave the school system 7 years with my child, and for seven years I was told, she can't do this, and she can't do that, and one day I realized, she CAN do this, and she CAN do that, but she needs some help getting there, so I decided not to wait any more for the system to finish screwing up her education, and let her graduate from high school functionally illiterate, and so I have taken control of her education, which I should have done years ago."

And then, nine times out of ten they say, "Oh. Well, what are you doing about her socialization?" To which I kindly reply, "I'm not letting her go to school every day where the other kids call her dumb and stupid." Excuse my language, but FUCK socialization. Seriously. I am so sick of hearing that. Do you have any idea what kind of crap your kids are being exposed to at school? Mind you, none of these same people ever questioned what kind of socialization my kid was getting before home schooling. They were not concerned at all about how vulnerable she was to bullying, and abuse by other children, and even school staff.

Next thing, we got a puppy. Even though I said I wouldn't, I changed my mind and got one. I do that. I'm wishy washy that way. I don't know why this is a topic of debate for anyone who doesn't live in this house, but of course, my neighbors have added their little two cents to the discussion. Well, only one neighbor, and it wasn't the bitchy fat one across the street either, it was the friendly one behind us. This one, she has always been friendly, and nice, but for some reason she thinks it is all right to flat out question my decisions. She thinks we should raise our dogs a certain way, and do certain things with them.

I see her exasperated sometimes because she is running from this trainer, to that trainer with her dogs, and she and her husband foster dogs. They like dogs, but they live in a different situation than we do. She can leave her dogs out in the back yard any time she likes, and since they are not directly facing the street there, they don't bark at every leaf that blows across the street,but they do bark, it is just people can't see them bark. Mine don't bark at every leaf blowing, but they do bark at every pedestrian that passes by our fence. She knows we have this problem with our dogs. She sees us out there with them all the time hushing, and shooing them for barking at the fence.

So she says, "Oh you got a puppy, what does your husband think about that? You had to go get a little yipper huh?" I'm not kidding you. That is what she said. My husband came home, and he was less than happy that I got the puppy. I was a bit surprised at that since he had just said a week or two before that when our daughter was asking for a puppy that maybe we should just get one. Anyway, I said, "Well honey, no matter how you feel about my decision, if the neighbor asks you what you think of the puppy, just tell her you love it. I don't want her having the satisfaction of thinking you don't like it, she will gloat over it."

We were going to grill out that day, and so my husband went to set up the grill, and the first thing she asked him, with a smirk I might add, "So, what do you think of the new puppy?" He said, and this is why I love him so much, he won't let anyone else gloat on me, "Oh, I love it, he's great." Well, he came in the house, and said, "Man, you are good, you've got her pegged." When he said that, I knew exactly what had happened. I told him, "thank you honey, I always know you have my back, even if you are not particularly happy with me about it, she doesn't need to know that."

I shouldn't have got the puppy without a definite okay from him. I know that, he knows that. I generally don't do stuff like that. It really was an impulse decision. I am used to making decisions without him around, but I usually try to check out what he is thinking on something before I do something big. He generally trusts my judgment but if I do something he disagrees with, he can be a bear about it of course, but he usually forgives it.

Anyway, I've been running into this problem with people a lot lately, which means, maybe I should check myself. I am pretty good at pushing my own opinions around as well, I have been wondering how many times I've come across with other people this way. How many times have I overstepped the bounds of a conversation and poked my nose where it didn't belong? Knowing myself means, probably too many times. Well, I don't like it when people do it to me, so I am going to really concentrate on not acting this way myself.

Last night we cleaned the kiddo's room. OH MY GOSH! What a horrible pig stye. I guess I haven't actually opened her closet door in a while because when I did I wanted to cry. Everything under the sun, except what was supposed to be, was stuffed in there. Well, two hours later, we had moved the furniture around, and completely cleaned that room. We got rid of a bunch of stuff, including the big toy box, which is going to be given away. She put her new bedding on the bed, and we plan to get new curtains, and some posters. We are going to make it more of a big kid's room, and really cool.

As for the rest of the house, it is not going to clean itself, unfortunately, that technology hasn't been invented yet, so I better get a move on. Which reminds me, I totally wanted to live in a house like the Jetsons when I was a kid. I had amazing foresight as a child I guess. Be back soon. Hugs.