From one bias to another.
Twenty years ago, I was on my way to becoming a public school teacher, and my opinions on homeschooling were far different than today. I won’t share all of those opinions or biases, now, however I will say that showing kindness for homeschool moms, was not something I valued.
So, why talk about kindness for homeschool moms?
Today, my number one, (biased) reason, is that I’m a homeschool mom. You would LOL at the irony of it all if you knew the whole story.
Are you a homeschool mom, or is there one in your life?
Neighbor, friend, friend of a friend, co-worker, some random lady you’ve heard about but never interacted with? I assure you there’s one near you.
We’re everywhere.
You see us at the grocery store in the middle of the day, often herding a bunch of school age kids. Doing math drills in the waiting room at the doctor’s office. You see us leaving the library with red wagons, full of books.
However what you don’t always see; is that sometimes, we’re trying very hard to ignore the rude judging stares from other patrons and employees. We’re often, trying to prevent our kids from hearing their thoughtless remarks.
Why aren’t your kids in school, something must be wrong with them?
Is that even legal?
What a bunch of weirdos.
You’re making your kids stupid.
Do you hate America?
Yes folks, these are actual things that have been said to me (insert palm-to-face-here).
This mom-thing is hard.
We’re constantly striving for perfection. We’re all wonder-mom-wannabes, and we homeschool moms, are guilty of it too. Besides the incredible responsibility of raising productive members of society, for some crazy reason, we’ve also chosen to educate them.
What this means; is that we may have to chose to go over our weekly spelling words one more time, instead of unloading the dishwasher, or even loading it for that matter.
It means we may have to chose to re-read a few chapters of Huck Finn, instead of making dinner from scratch, which often results in cereal for dinner, or pizza delivery for the third night in a row.
Random Acts of Kindness for Homeschool Moms
Remember what it was like to be a new mom? There we so many things on your list. So much you wanted-to, and had-to do, but there was no time, because you had to constantly keep an eye on a new baby.
Homeschooling, is a little bit like that, except instead of feeding and changing a new born 24/7, we’re teaching, molding, and guiding 24/7. The overwhelm is very real in both scenarios, and help is what makes a difference in both cases.
So what can you do, to show kindness for homeschool moms?
- When you see us out and about in the middle of the day, greet us with a smile.
- Compliment, and assure us that you respect our choice to homeschool.
- Don’t ask our kids if they wished they attended public school, or look at them with pity because they’ll miss prom and pep rallies.
- Drop-off a meal for the whole family. It doesn’t have to be homemade, we’ll take it!
- Offer to watch the kids for a couple of hours a week for homeschool mom sanity time.
- Talk to us about non-kid, non-homeschool related stuff.
- Drop off paper goods! Paper plates, are one of the best ways to tame the kitchen mess.
- Bring us coffee, tea, and chocolate. We need pampering too!
- Offer to run errands. One of my sisters often calls me when she’s at the store and offers to pick things up. This is a HUGE blessing.
- Become a substitute teacher. You can be a reading coach, or arts and crafts director.
BONUS TIP –> Pray for her. It won’t cost you anything at all.
So, as we make it a daily habit to practice kindness to one another, I urge you to show kindness for homeschool moms. No more mommy wars! After all, we all share the same end goal: to raise responsible, kind people that will one day be in charge of our communities, countries and our world.
These are simple, they don’t require much effort, yet they can truly make a difference.
Are you a homeschool mom? What would you add to this list?
More Random Acts of Kindness
If you want over 200 more ideas, check out this Random Acts of Kindness series.