Show Your Kids You Care. Don't Home School Them.

When people learn I am a stay at home dad, one question I'm often asked is whether or not I home school my children.  Since I'm home anyway, I might as well spend all day teaching my kids basic math skills, phonics, the dewey decimal system, an entire history of the earth, and art.  I have enough stuff to keep me busy with laundry, dishes, mowing the yard, kissing boo-boos, changing diapers, making bottles, doctor appointments, grocery shopping, changing diapers, making beds, picking up the house, re-picking up the house, cooking meals, and taking out the trash (which usually includes dirty diapers I've changed).

I don't know where that thing has been.

 No, I don't home school my kids.  My children are going to be socially awkward enough thanks to their father's lack of eye contact and fear of hand shakes. They don't need the added weight of having no social interaction with their peers until college.  I suppose it's possible for a child to be home schooled through high school and then enroll in some online "university", but I'd rather my children have job prospects and a degree they didn't have to print out themselves.  I just can't imagine keeping my children sheltered from all the things that are so great about school.  Things like getting picked last in P.E. (it's going to happen son), being bullied,  having a teacher humiliate you in front of class, learning your parents lied to you about Santa Claus, and having your best friend date the girl of your dreams.

Without bullying, your kid may never grow out of stupid phases.

These are all priceless lessons that you just can't teach a child at home.  These are the things that make you grow and become a stronger person.  I respect those that do home school their children, but there is no way I could ever do it.  I have trouble getting my kids to sit down for five minutes to eat dinner.  How am I to get them to sit thirty minutes for spelling.  I have trouble getting my daughter to wipe her own butt after her "big job".  How could I get her to write her own name?


Home schooling is a huge commitment that I'm not willing to make.  I would rather enjoy the time I have with my kids than spend it working on school work.  I also rather enjoy the time I don't have with them when they are at school.