Heyunyi asks, “Is your decision to homeschool going to result in you being a stay at home mom longer than you originally planned?”
When I first saw this question, my immediate response was, “No, of course not! I always wanted to stay home as long as possible,” but once I got to thinking about it, I realized that this really did potentially alter my long term plans.
I had no timeline on returning to work outside the home, though I planned on going back to school to get my PhD in creative writing. I currently have a master’s degree in professional writing, but I just don’t feel that I’ve reached the terminus of my education. I miss taking classes. I miss being around my professional peers. I want to learn more about my craft. I’d like to have the option of teaching collegiately some day. I’d also like the additional credibility that having a doctorate bestows, especially since I have plans to develop a creative writing curriculum for homeschoolers. All of this points towards going back to grad school.
My bachelor’s and master’s degree were both completed after having Captain Science. I was pregnant with the Tank while still in my master’s program and he was born before I completed my thesis. School and children can definitely be compatible. A doctorate program is a different kettle of fish, though. Along with taking classes, I expect I’d be teaching some, as well. That’s a lot more of a time sink than two hours of classes a few nights a week.
Homeschooling the children means a delay of my doctorate plans, not that I had a specific time frame in mind. With the kids’ age differences, I could conceivably be homeschooling for the next 16-18 years or so, if we decide to homeschool Babypie the whole way through. I wouldn’t have to be home every waking minute of every day past a certain point, obviously, and by high school, who’s to say what the various children will be doing — college classes, magnet school, co-op stuff, begging to be sent away to boarding school because they’re so tired of looking at their mama’s ugly mug?
Luckily, additional graduate school isn’t on the horizon in the near future, regardless of my homeschooling plans, so I’m only thinking about it abstractly right now. Who knows what the future holds? After doing some thinking on the matter, I realize that I’m willing to put some of my goals on hold or even reevaluate them all together for the sake of homeschooling my children, and that’s nice to know.
Do you have a question you’d like to ask a [smrt] homeschooler? Email me at smrtmama@smrtlernins.com!
“After doing some thinking on the matter, I realize that I’m willing to put some of my goals on hold or even reevaluate them all together for the sake of homeschooling my children, and that’s nice to know.”
I seriously think there is something wonderful to be said of a mother who has dreams and aspirations, desires and goals, and yet willingly chooses to put them on hold or modify them for her children’s ultimate good. Who doesn’t want a mom like that! A truly smart mom.
I’m afraid that once the children come, they become the priority. It is a little uncomfortable taking the back seat, but someone did it for both of us! I know that you love your children and that seems to be of enough value to make it bearable or even fulfilling in the back seat. You are now a back seat driver! It sounds as if you are at peace with changing to this new mission.