My Draft Posts File is as Fat as Our Cats, and Other Stories

My draft posts file is getting bigger and bigger. It’s looking rather fat, just like our cats. Each afternoon, for the past few days, I’ve fed it with another failed post. I’ve wanted to write but can’t seem to find the right words.

There’s lots of things I want to mull over, like…  chores. I know I’ve already written about this topic. Actually, I think Getting Kids to Help with the Chores is my most popular post ever. It just shows what a big part of life chores are. So many people are looking for the perfect way to get them all done, with everyone helping, and without any tears or threats.

Just recently I read several comments, elsewhere around the blogosphere, by mothers who’d like to unschool more fully…  you know, let it spill over into their parenting. The reason they say they are reluctant to do this is because they don’t want to end up doing all the chores themselves. They think that if they give their children a choice, the children will refuse to work. I wonder if this is what actually happens. Will kids only work if they are pushed? I know from personal experience that children doing chores, and more radical unschooling, aren’t mutually exclusive. I’d really like to share a story about how my kids once hid the chores roster because they didn’t want me to throw it in the garbage bin. I found that so funny. I wish I could find the right words to tell you about that properly.

I’ve also been thinking about how unschooling isn’t a guarantee that kids will get immediately to where they want to go, as soon as they step out into adult life. Unforeseen things can happen. Mistakes will still be made. God still sends challenges despite the best arranged life. Does anyone have a perfect life? But I guess some people might expect unschooling to lead to perfection, especially as I’m always writing about it in such glowing terms.

Did you see that homeschooling book about the family whose children all went to university (or was that ‘college’?) at very young ages? That is so impressive. I couldn’t write a book like that. I haven’t got any similar amazing success stories to tell. I do have some amazing stories to tell though, just not ones that sell books. I wonder if I already have a draft post in my file on this topic.

I was reading about accountability somewhere on the Internet the other day. (I have done more reading than writing recently.) Will our kids ask us why we parented and educated them like we did? Will they wish we had been tougher with them? “Why did you unschool us, Mum? How could you have done that to us…. ?” I interviewed my son Callum the other day for one of my unschooling videos. He’s 22. (I rather enjoyed talking to him.) I asked him if he thought unschooling was a good preparation for his adult life. Did he wish some things had been different? I’d tell you what he said but that might spoil my video! (I’ll be posting part 1 of From Unschooling to University and Work tomorrow.)

Talking about video making, Sophie and I have been talking over vlogging ideas. She actually made a video this afternoon. She decided to talk about her most hated piece of clothing. This started me thinking… I might enjoy chatting about similar things, telling a few stories in short (?!!) videos. I am reminded of a question I was asked a few years ago: “When did my girls start wearing long skirts?” I think there was criticism hidden beneath this question. Actually, my daughters all prefer knee length (or even just above the knee) skirts but you can see the direction the woman’s thoughts were going. Yes, lots to talk about. But would anyone listen?

Do you remember how I wanted an opportunity to wear my new coat? Well, that opportunity arrived this week. A bitterly cold wind has been blowing for several days. I thought we were going to miss out on winter completely this year. It appears not. This has been good for coat wearing but not good for running. Who wants to battle against wild weather while running? I don’t. But I did. Yes today, just before lunch, I made myself put on my track pants and run down to the bush tracks for some exercise. It wasn’t too bad once I started moving. As I ran, I thought about a comment that was left on my last post, an analogy between running and homeschooling. It’s very apt. I liked it very much. Anyway, as I was running along, I was thinking about how we need to push ourselves out of our comfort zones more frequently. Nothing is ever as hard as it seems once we start moving. The feeling afterwards is so satisfying. And every time we challenge ourselves in this way, we get a little stronger. I might write about that one day…

But today, I can’t find the right words to write any of these stories. I’ll just file them away in the drafts file. let it get a little fatter. Who knows? I might be able to finish them another time.

Talking about fat, did I tell you our cats are on a diet? It’s embarrassing having such podgy cats. We had to do something about it. The cats are not happy…

But that’s another story.