This was such an interesting conversation and resonated so deeply with me. Thank you Fran and Adele for delving into this. I feel like you pretty much described my life and all my worries/stress around home education, unschooling and trying to work part time.
I love my work as it gives me an intellectual and creative outlet, it also provides a small and unreliable but essential income for our family BUT it also creates stress and takes my attention away from caring for my children. It’s a complicated issue.
Thank you for drawing attention to the MLM type lifestyle stuff that seems to be pretty rife in some homeschooling/world-schooling groups. There does seem to be a fair bit pushing of this image of an amazing lifestyle and then praying on people’s desires to provide for their family.
I found the conversation really thought provoking thank you. So many things came up for me. We are home educating now due to school refusal/ burnout and that’s been tough as definitely wasn’t a choice at the time but now I feel through all my reading and research it’s a really good option for my kids so now it feels like a bit more of a choice ( taking some agency back I suppose in reframing that for myself)
The word neglect really struck me and my fear as I think this is my biggest fear ever of having children that I won’t be good enough etc and that feeds into the idea of neglect. I think as a very black and white often but trying not to be a perfectionist thinker , I find it hard to draw the line between what people even mean by neglect. I’m not sure how to put it into words but I think my fear of being neglectful makes me try to be perfect ?! Something like that.
I’ve had to stop working as a result if home education there’s no way I could do both as my capacity is low I now realise after years of pushing too hard. But that’s meant my husband has had to work a bit more to cover that and there’s still a financial loss.
This conversation really made me ponder that in everything there is a balance a trade off , I feel like that just is the case with everything big and small and this will be the same for home educating . Really interesting, thank you.
I absolutely inhaled this - very timely as I desperately try to get through my work to-do list on this rainy Sunday (I do not work on the days that I'm the home-ed parent so everything has to either get done on a Thursday or at the weekend). For me, the trade off to working and home educating has been chronic stress, exhaustion, an often messy house (and a totally neglected garden), missing out on a LOT of family and friend time, and almost zero time with my husband. It's definitely not something I would recommend, but equally I don't know what else I can do as we need the little bit of money I bring in, and I also love the work I do and wouldn't want to stop doing it. Thanks for this conversation xxx
I was eager to listen to this conversation over my morning coffee and felt grateful I only had to pause the episode a couple of times to meet my kids needs. I made some notes while listening and thought I'd share some of my thoughts and reflections here.
It was refreshing to listen to a conversation I haven't come across much in the homeschool community and something that is often on my own mind. I think a lot of homeschool parents will find this discussion valuable.
Two common messages I have received within the homeschool world is homeschooling is great because it allows you to slow down AND you can work for pay while homeschooling. But, how can we slow down AND work while homeschooling? I have not found a way to do this myself. I have both worked for pay (part time) while homeschooling and now while homeschooling I don't work for pay at all. The entire time, like almost daily even, if only in the back of my mind I am searching for an idea of how to realistically earn a modest income while homeschooling without feeling overwhelmed. We are very fortunate to be able to live off one income, but it does not come without sacrifice on both my partner's end and my own. I think it is Adele in the episode that mentions what one can realistically fit into a human day. I personally have not fit in working for pay and homeschooling successfully into one day. I agree with Fran and Adele that we are pretending it's simple to fit together both caring full time for our children and also working for pay. Not to say no one has found a way to homeschool and work, but I am positive it's not been simple and not without letting something else go. Is it self-care that they let go of? Rest? Are more demands placed on everyone in the family? I don't know, but I do know I cannot do a good job homeschooling while letting go of self-care and I definitely have one kiddo who would not be okay with more demands being placed on them, nor do I want to put more demands on either of my kids.
One final thought was in regards to the part of the conversation where Adele and Fran talk about homeschooling being a choice. I do not disagree with this, however I do feel in some families including my own, homeschooling is a must for some children's mental health. To be honest, while I could make the choice to send my children to school my one child would greatly suffer and we would possibly face school refusal as we did in the past. So in that sense how much is homeschooling really a choice for my family? Do I really have a choice not to find a way to make this path continue to work at least for as long as school doesn't work well for my child(ren)?
A big thank you to both Fran and Adele for having and share this conversation. I really appreciated listening in.
I’m excited to listen to this one! I’ve worked from home for 7 years. At the moment I’m tired. My job requires creativity and being semi-inspiring, and I feel neither right now. It also requires constantly adapting to industry changes every 6-9 months. I love that we can afford to contribute to retirement. I love that we can afford to go on a vacation and do an amusement park once a year, that our kids can do some extracurriculars without me stressing about money. My husband works 4 days a week (or so, depending on overtime), and I work 10-15 hours a week. It works right now. I need the stability that comes from two incomes in order to homeschool, for my mental health, so I keep on keeping on (despite my recent “wouldn’t it be nice to just stay home” feelings).
This was such an interesting conversation and resonated so deeply with me. Thank you Fran and Adele for delving into this. I feel like you pretty much described my life and all my worries/stress around home education, unschooling and trying to work part time.
I love my work as it gives me an intellectual and creative outlet, it also provides a small and unreliable but essential income for our family BUT it also creates stress and takes my attention away from caring for my children. It’s a complicated issue.
Thank you for drawing attention to the MLM type lifestyle stuff that seems to be pretty rife in some homeschooling/world-schooling groups. There does seem to be a fair bit pushing of this image of an amazing lifestyle and then praying on people’s desires to provide for their family.
I found the conversation really thought provoking thank you. So many things came up for me. We are home educating now due to school refusal/ burnout and that’s been tough as definitely wasn’t a choice at the time but now I feel through all my reading and research it’s a really good option for my kids so now it feels like a bit more of a choice ( taking some agency back I suppose in reframing that for myself)
The word neglect really struck me and my fear as I think this is my biggest fear ever of having children that I won’t be good enough etc and that feeds into the idea of neglect. I think as a very black and white often but trying not to be a perfectionist thinker , I find it hard to draw the line between what people even mean by neglect. I’m not sure how to put it into words but I think my fear of being neglectful makes me try to be perfect ?! Something like that.
I’ve had to stop working as a result if home education there’s no way I could do both as my capacity is low I now realise after years of pushing too hard. But that’s meant my husband has had to work a bit more to cover that and there’s still a financial loss.
This conversation really made me ponder that in everything there is a balance a trade off , I feel like that just is the case with everything big and small and this will be the same for home educating . Really interesting, thank you.
I absolutely inhaled this - very timely as I desperately try to get through my work to-do list on this rainy Sunday (I do not work on the days that I'm the home-ed parent so everything has to either get done on a Thursday or at the weekend). For me, the trade off to working and home educating has been chronic stress, exhaustion, an often messy house (and a totally neglected garden), missing out on a LOT of family and friend time, and almost zero time with my husband. It's definitely not something I would recommend, but equally I don't know what else I can do as we need the little bit of money I bring in, and I also love the work I do and wouldn't want to stop doing it. Thanks for this conversation xxx
I was eager to listen to this conversation over my morning coffee and felt grateful I only had to pause the episode a couple of times to meet my kids needs. I made some notes while listening and thought I'd share some of my thoughts and reflections here.
It was refreshing to listen to a conversation I haven't come across much in the homeschool community and something that is often on my own mind. I think a lot of homeschool parents will find this discussion valuable.
Two common messages I have received within the homeschool world is homeschooling is great because it allows you to slow down AND you can work for pay while homeschooling. But, how can we slow down AND work while homeschooling? I have not found a way to do this myself. I have both worked for pay (part time) while homeschooling and now while homeschooling I don't work for pay at all. The entire time, like almost daily even, if only in the back of my mind I am searching for an idea of how to realistically earn a modest income while homeschooling without feeling overwhelmed. We are very fortunate to be able to live off one income, but it does not come without sacrifice on both my partner's end and my own. I think it is Adele in the episode that mentions what one can realistically fit into a human day. I personally have not fit in working for pay and homeschooling successfully into one day. I agree with Fran and Adele that we are pretending it's simple to fit together both caring full time for our children and also working for pay. Not to say no one has found a way to homeschool and work, but I am positive it's not been simple and not without letting something else go. Is it self-care that they let go of? Rest? Are more demands placed on everyone in the family? I don't know, but I do know I cannot do a good job homeschooling while letting go of self-care and I definitely have one kiddo who would not be okay with more demands being placed on them, nor do I want to put more demands on either of my kids.
One final thought was in regards to the part of the conversation where Adele and Fran talk about homeschooling being a choice. I do not disagree with this, however I do feel in some families including my own, homeschooling is a must for some children's mental health. To be honest, while I could make the choice to send my children to school my one child would greatly suffer and we would possibly face school refusal as we did in the past. So in that sense how much is homeschooling really a choice for my family? Do I really have a choice not to find a way to make this path continue to work at least for as long as school doesn't work well for my child(ren)?
A big thank you to both Fran and Adele for having and share this conversation. I really appreciated listening in.
I’m excited to listen to this one! I’ve worked from home for 7 years. At the moment I’m tired. My job requires creativity and being semi-inspiring, and I feel neither right now. It also requires constantly adapting to industry changes every 6-9 months. I love that we can afford to contribute to retirement. I love that we can afford to go on a vacation and do an amusement park once a year, that our kids can do some extracurriculars without me stressing about money. My husband works 4 days a week (or so, depending on overtime), and I work 10-15 hours a week. It works right now. I need the stability that comes from two incomes in order to homeschool, for my mental health, so I keep on keeping on (despite my recent “wouldn’t it be nice to just stay home” feelings).