Time Away for Mom and Dad (Part 2)

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There are many home schooling couples who split up.  That seems so hard to believe because usually home schooling families are a group of very committed christians putting everything on the line to live for the highest ideals.  I’m not trying to be offensive or exclusive or imply that home schoolers are “holier than thou”.  But I have been a part of this movement for almost 20 years and have known innumerable people in this movement and a very high percentage of them are extremely committed christians who are wanting to live according to God’s instructions in the culture that we live in. They are willing to sacrifice income and status and do life very, very differently than the rest of the population and even differently from the rest of the christian world if it means that they are living obedient to Christ’s commands.

When I hear about fellow home schoolers breaking up, it bothers me.  Maybe it hits a little too close to home. How could these couples break up?  Maybe this is one of the answers....

Maybe there is so much emphasis on the kids that there is nothing left for the couples themselves.  Maybe we can get so focused on our discipleship and pouring into our children that we get our priorities out of order and we do not tend to our marriages.  Anything out of the right priority brings pain and negative consequences.  The 20/20 vision kicks in after the fact and says, “Oh, if I could only do it over again, I would do it differently.”  It’s hard to see when you are so close up.

So when you do get that precious opportunity to run off with your beloved and soak up some time just for the two of you, don’t feel sorry for those kiddos one bit!  They are having their own “fun of a lifetime” as they flit from friend to friend in your absence.  The last email that I got from my daughter said, “Hi Mom, hope you’re having fun in Mexico because we sure are!”  They are definitely not suffering.  But more importantly, we are building one of the most important factors in our lives, and even if they were sitting home with a babysitter in utter boredom, this is the best thing for them and for us.