Not!
Right now, I am deeply grieved because my 12-year-old son feels hurt. If my husband and I could have controlled this situation to lesson the blow, we certainly would have. Unfortunately, a parent just cannot control some things. You see, my son put a lot of time and energy into a particular activity. Now that the program is being changed, and people he has grown to love and trust could very well be leaving, he is devastated. He is having a hard time dealing with the fact that people will come into our lives, circumstances will change, and people will go. Life’s lessons are hard. They are even harder to watch a child go through. All we can do as Mom and Dad is promise that we will be there for him for as long as God allows us to walk this green earth.
Of course, there are some things that we can “control”. Notice the quotation marks. There are no absolutes in life.
- We control their curriculum, except for the fact that the second they step outside to play with the neighborhood kids, they learn new and exciting words like “humphing”. Not only was I forced to correct the pronunciation of the word, but I also had to give an impromptu sex education lesson.
- We control who they are friends with, except there is no way to control who moves in next-door, or who goes to our church. Most of all, we certainly cannot choose our relatives.
- We can protect them from bullies, with the exception of the neighborhood kids who like to alienate them because they do not go to public school.
- We can protect them from crime, except somehow their money still is stolen, and they still see graffiti everywhere.
- We control their religious instruction, except for the fact that this is America their friends include people from many different religious backgrounds.
Sure, homeschoolers control their children’s environments, but to what extent? Just living is an education within itself.