Myths About Homeschooling Moms
The time has come to crush myths about homeschooling moms. Yep, they exist.
I’ll be the first to admit that when I was younger, waaaay before I had children and waaay before I started on this homeschooling adventure, I may have believed at least one of these myths about homeschooling moms. Once I started homeschooling, they didn’t stand a chance, though.
I knew better.
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Myths About Homeschooling Moms are Myths, Not Facts
Never judge, underestimate, guess, or doubt what the homeschooling mom (or dad) has or doesn’t have in her bag of tricks.
While homeschooling gets more mainstream, dare I even say trendy, as increasing numbers of families choose to go the homeschool route or take it out of necessity (COVID-19 schooling), myths about homeschooling moms (and families) still exist. Spend an afternoon on Twitter and you’ll see what I mean.
It’s time to put an end to these myths, un-truths, and over-generalizations. Are you ready?
Let’s Bust ’em Up
MYTH #1. Homeschooling Moms Keep the Radio Dial Locked on Christian Rock, American Family Radio, and Everything Religious.
What?!? First off, some of these moms are getting their music fix on Sirius XM or Spotify. But, seriously? This is such a huge generalization about homeschooling moms or families. Sure, there are deeply religious homeschooling families and homeschooling moms.
But there are also families who homeschool for reasons that have nothing to do with religion.
Many don’t even do the religion thing.
Nope. Not. At. All.
There are also those who can mash up some serious prayer while folding laundry with gangsta rap, hip hop, or house blasting in the background. Yep, I’m one of those. There are no one-size-fits-all homeschooling mom music rules. Got it?
MYTH #2: Homeschooling Moms Have Saint-Like Patience.
They must, right? After all, they homeschool their kids 24/7.
Nope, busted! Homeschooling moms aren’t born or gifted with Saint-like patience. It’s cultivated, day in and day out.
It’s refined through 1000s of questions, like ‘Can I just do one page? Can I be done now? Can I play now?’ It’s uncultivated through temper tantrums, and broody tweens and teens. And it’s tested and strengthened through challenges with spouses, partners, ex’es, children, parents, in-laws, and friends over the years. It’s perfected through practice.
It’s practiced through imperfection.
Homeschooling moms don’t have any magic or inate gifts of patience. They just get good at practicing patience, practicing communication, practicing dealing with personalities at their best and worst, and practicing coping with failures and setbacks.
What’s that saying, practice makes perfect? Or is it progress? Sometimes homeschooling moms really do have Saint-like patience. But sometimes they fail magnificently at it. Sometimes, it all comes out in the wash and they take a deep breath just like any other mom or human–and keep going the best they can.
MYTH #3: Homeschooling Moms Raise Dorky Kids.
Seriously?!? Go ahead, I dare you to say this to Billie Eilish or to her mom. This is totally wrong!
Homeschooling kids are some of the coolest and unique kids on the planet. Homeschoolers do some pretty cool things while growing up (and after), so if competing in high-level international sporting events, performing in Times Square, having major YouTube channels, acting gigs, or Influencer accounts on Instagram is dorky, so be it–and a huge congrats to the homeschooling moms standing behind those kids.
MYTH #4: Homeschooling Moms Who Don’t Have Teaching Degrees Aren’t Qualified to Teach.
This myth is brutally wrong. And what’s really wrong about it is that this myth scares parents from homeschooling. It also raises unnecessary self-doubts about parent abilities to homeschool. Besides being the obvious, a parent, the key qualification that a parent needs in order to homeschool is that they want to do it.
There are many resources available online and in communities (like co-ops, classes, homeschool groups, etc.) to support parents and children that parents can homeschool their children successfully without degrees or special teacher training. As blogger Penelope Trunk points out, “teachers at school can never enable self-directed learning better than parents can at home.” A homeschooling mom who wants to homeschool and has her child’s best interest in mind is capable of anything she sets her mind to.
MYTH #5: Homeschooling Moms Have Gross Teeth.
I can’t even. Seriously?
My kids tell me this is really a thing. Total myth. It definitely needs to be busted! Have you seen homeschooling moms on Instagram? Some days when I scroll through IG, I think I might be the only homeschooling mom who isn’t a model or sponsored athlete. But at least I have good teeth (so my kids tell me). 😉
MYTH #6: Homeschooling Moms Don’t Work.
Not even true in the slightest! There are homeschooling moms who work full-time outside of the home or work full-time at home. They do it all. They juggle homeschooling, family, and life, sometimes with the help of a spouse, family, neighbors, or homeschooling groups. There are homeschooling moms who are single parents, balancing work and homeschooling.
There are homeschooling moms who wear several hats, working part-time, running businesses, or working unpaid volunteer jobs or projects. Homeschooling moms also do ‘work’ at home, beyond everything they do for their homeschool, such as facilitating learning, planning curriculum, buying books, and organizing field trips. They also ‘work’ doing things countless things, like scheduling appointments, shuttling kids to sports practices, grocery shopping, meal planning and prep, planning birthday parties and holiday events, walking dogs, and keeping tabs on family and friends.
MORE: Read How to Become a Mompreneur to learn how to become a mom business owner.
MYTH #7: Homeschooling Moms are Overprotective.
Of course, we are! We’re moms! But, nah, this is only partly true. We know our children are growing up. Every day, we watch them learn and discover a bit more about themselves and the world around them. We know it’s only a short matter of years, months, or days before they leave the nest, and we only have a finite window to prepare and guide them for what lies ahead. We’re all doing the best we can.
There you have it. 7 Myths about Homeschooling Moms Debunked.
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