Forget BIG Responsibility: The Push Back

I think responsibility is important. My homeschooled kids are never going to have to own their homework and schoolwork in the same way that they would in a public or private school. I'm always going to know what it is they have to accomplish. I try to make sure they have age-appropriate opportunities to take on responsibility.

What's interesting is how much that's resisted by others.

An example: for vision therapy, EG has 15 minutes of work to do on the computer daily. Scores must be recorded on a specific sheet and turned in each week. She's in charge of recording those scores, taking the sheet to vision therapy each week, and getting more sheets when necessary.

When she needs more sheets, they always want to come out and talk to me about it. Do they really think my handwriting is that messy? I've finally stopped going in to the office at all, giving her another piece of responsibility. Horror of horrors, I make my 9.5 year old cross a parking lot to the door by herself.

I let her walk ahead of me at the Y, too, and go into the appropriate (girls under 14, boys under 8, adults only accompanied by a child) locker room by herself. Yes, I have gotten strange looks for this bizarre behavior.

In short, the level of responsibility I attempt to give her in public situations which is, in my view, pretty mild (I know I could give her considerably more), is viewed as strange and, judging by those looks I mentioned earlier, possibly irresponsible.

So, in a million tiny ways, I try to increase the kids' level of responsibility & independence, and in a million other ways, it feels like society pushes back. It's downright frustrating.

And now, let me reference something that is BIG. The temperature today. After weeks of frigid temperatures, making us think that winter would last forever, we had approximately two days of spring weather (one of them being on the first day of spring), and now have gone straight to Summer. We were not allowed to pass Go, nor to collect two hundred dollars. We are allowed to have highs near 90°F. Right then.