First day of summer vacation...

No I am not talking tongue in cheek, I am being quite serious. Why do some parents want to get their kids back in school? Maybe because some parents have 5 children ages 11, 5, 5, 2, and 5 months. Maybe because some people have little to no help with all those children because their spouse has to work every waking hour to keep food on the table, and there's no other family or friends to take the kids for a bit. Maybe sometimes you need to know the full story before jumping to conclusions that parents don't want and/or love their children... just that school is the only break, and every parent needs a break, regardless of how many children there are.

Wizzywig I am suprised that you took some sort of offense to this. EVERYONE needs a break. I raised three kids and I homeschooled them. But let me tell you there were times when I NEEDED a break. Times when I could have pulled out my hair. And times when I had to call a family time out. Everyone had to work or play in their own rooms including me sometimes. I love my kids with ALL my heart. I spent as much time as I could with them and we enjoyed that time. But we ALL also enjoyed the moments that we weren't stuck together like glue. Now we are full time rvers and our youngest is still with us. It's not much space and we are with him 24/7. There are many times when I have to go into my room to work and let him know that it's mom's break time. He understands. Sometimes he goes for a walk to take his own break from us. EVERYONE needs a break sometimes. There is nothing shameful in that. And there is NOTHING wrong with wanting your kids to do chores and being thankful for the help around the house. My children learned to be responsible and help around the house young because of my disability. Every one of them has grown up with a sense of responsibility and a good work ethic. And your right a child is for life. I still ask my mother for the occasional favor but that doesn't mean that you don't still need your own space or time sometimes.

Like I said, it wasn't a judgement and I wasn't 'jumping to conclusions' about your personal circumstances nor suggesting that parents dont need a break.I was merely expressing an opinion based on my own experience as a parent and an educarer - which i thought was the point of a discussion group. Personally, I CHOSE to have the number of children I had and, in so doing, I undertook all the responsibility which came with that choice. BTW, my husband worked away from home whilst mine were young and I had no relatives in the area. I am sorry if you found my opinion disagreeable - as I pointed out, it was not my intention to offend. Best wishes to you and your family.

Yay, you're back! My neighbor homeschools also and she doesn't stop for summer actually. She schools 6 of them! Well actually only 4 are school age, the other 2 are younger. I feel for that woman! But she enjoys it... she must otherwise she wouldn't do it, right? Since moving here I've been debating homeschooling... I'm just not sure I have the patience. I meant to do some math with them today and haven't yet. I've only JUST asked my oldest if he's done any of the math sheets I gave him. He handed it to me and here I am yapping away instead of checking his work. Bad me, bad bad!

Yeah, a few a day is good. I seem to be right back to my old routine. Past few days have been no less than 20 posts a day. But next week I won't be on as much, at least for a couple days... surgery time, yay me

lol I don't know that I'm back but I am going to try to do a few a day over here.

My kids are typically like that too. They are always well behaved when we are out somewhere or if someone is visiting. Of course we've already done our visiting for this year, and we aren't getting a visitor until the end of August.

Yes, I think this is adding to my struggles as it has been very wet and yucky... but also hot and humid! So the kids are pretty much stuck inside all day. Not much fun for any of us.