Homeschooling at the risk of raising a “weird” kid

Homeschooling at the risk of raising a “weird” kid

“We are all born originals, but sadly most of us die as copies.” This is a quote that has been attributed to various people, Edward Young and Abraham Lincoln to name a couple. This has probably never rang more true than today in the age of instant media. Americans are glued to what celebrities wear, do, eat, what dogs they own. Everywhere you look, people are copies of each other. Not just in what they wear, but also in their language and most destructively, in their behavior. Studies came out revealing that teens are heavily influenced by actors smoking on screen so there was a huge outcry against the industry to stop portraying smoking in a positive light. Of course, no mention of drinking, violence and sexual behavior. Apparently we are all suppose to be stupid enough to believe that the repulsive behavior of the morally depraved in Hollywood is ignored by our children until they light up a cancer stick.

 Those of us that don’t conform with the herd are deemed fringe, or, gasp, “weird.” It used to be that once you freed yourself from high school you were free to be as weird as you wanted without the crushing judgment that came with it in high school. If you didn’t have the latest haircut, clothes or if you dared to be intelligent, you would get by just fine in life without the mean girls making your life a living hell five days a week.

 Unfortunately, depravity loves company. In the days of daycare from 6 weeks of life to after school care until 6pm until they are old to wander the streets after school, our peer dependent society that has been created due to this breakdown in society has created a group think amongst our past two generations that lasts long past high school graduation. One only has to talk to a young twenty something and see how friend dependent they are over family, even over their own children. With this unfortunate reality comes the need for peer acceptance long past childhood. No one wants to be deemed “weird” by outsiders, even when it comes to raising your children. 

 The pressure of conforming to society and the status quo is a hard thing to resist among many people. In the politically correct world we are bullied into conforming, not hold independent thoughts, group think is what gets a person accepted and if you have the audacity to want to raise your child any differently, the herd will attempt to shame you back into line. Homeschooling is one of these things the herd doesn’t approve of.

 It is an ongoing battle to protect your child from the depravity of society. Society wants to sexualize your child, normalize their own lack of morals and make your child grow into an adult that simply goes with the flow, doesn’t rock the boat and be content with being mediocre. Just like the bullies in school that terrorized the “nerds.” Bullies see that they cannot achieve what the successful student can and this brings about the attitude that they must beat that child down, whether mentally or physically. This doesn’t stop in high school. You have a successful marriage, you’re an attractive person, a successful career, the claws of those that don’t or aren’t, will come out. 

 Raising a child that won’t conform to the herd is not an easy job. It will be an ongoing struggle to shut off the comments from family and friends about “sheltering” your child, not conforming to their depraved idea of what is the norm for children. People will try to convince you that by raising a “weird” child that they somehow won’t succeed in life. True, they probably won’t be behaving like teenagers into their early thirties, so peer dependent they can’t leave the college dorm life, still thinking they are too young to settle down even though the crow’s feet and gray hair have begun. They probably won’t have a clue what Lady Gaga’s latest stunt for attention was, but long after the latest fad has faded away, and the rest of the herd is on their second marriage, your child may just be a successful person.

 By successful, I mean success in what every parent wants for their child; responsible, caring, not self absorbed, there for their family and appreciative of what truly matters in life, not the latest trends that Hollywood has deemed worthy for the rest of us. Most importantly, you won’t be raising your grandchild while your twenty eight year old “child” continues living like one.

By Sasha Mercer

Homeschooling Blogger

The American Refugees