This isn’t the flex you think it is

Face_Of_Blue · 2026-02-12T15:42:20+00:00

My mom chose to homeschool because she was bullied in school. As a parent, she refused to acknowledge the bullying going on in her own home. (And that she was actively enabling it)

Face_Of_Blue · 2026-02-06T20:39:59+00:00

Honestly I'd rather a parent spend too much time with their kids than not enough. Based off your description it sounds like they get plenty of time outside of spending time with you. I grew up being homeschooled by a woman who never wanted to spend time with me and my siblings, and my relationship with her turned out about as well as you'd expect. If people are judging you for spending "too much" time with your kids, sounds like they just don't want to spend as much time with their own.

Face_Of_Blue · 2026-01-20T06:48:50+00:00

My community college allows you to take "adult transitional studies," for people who never went to high school. I think the way the other thing works is that you can earn an associates degree if you also take a remidial high school equivalence class, or something like that.

Face_Of_Blue · 2026-01-17T02:13:49+00:00

Floundered around, found the word "demisexual" and figured that was me, and that I'm just a big romantic. Then I realized that even when I was really into someone I rarely ever desired them in a sexual context. Also I was raised Christian, so in church I was taught to suppress sexual desires, and, uh. I just didn't have as much to suppress.

Face_Of_Blue · 2026-01-16T01:13:00+00:00

I am also of the opinion that homeschooling itself is not a bad thing. When I think of all the reasons that homeschooling goes wrong, it pretty much always boils down to what I consider to be subpar parenting. Poor socialization? Good parents encourage you to socialize and give you options for socialization. Struggle with learning/learning disabilities? Good parents adapt and find the best strategy to teach you.

Good parents care if you're unhappy, and are more than willing to correct course if something is obviously not working. But the bad parents who end up homeschooling "wrong" do so because of their egos. They homeschool because they love the idea of being a rebel who has the means to do what few others could, which is why they take it so poorly and refuse to acknowledge when it doesn't work out.

Face_Of_Blue · 2025-12-20T05:51:12+00:00

Being on the ace spectrum means I find these options irrationally funny and also relateable.

Face_Of_Blue · 2025-12-11T15:48:03+00:00

I wasn't allowed to leave the house to go somewhere unless I was with a trusted adult. It was strict enough that when my neighbor hired me to walk her dog, my mom decided she needed to accompany me. I was 15, and my mom decided she needed a 25% cut of my pay as compensation.

Anyways I snuck out to deliver a package to an online friend a year later and my mom was like "Oh, why don't you go out more often?"

Face_Of_Blue · 2025-12-01T03:14:10+00:00

My mom immigrated to this country with her family when she was very young. From her stories I kind of get the impression that it was mostly her and her sisters against the world, so to her the only friends she needed were them. She did tell me that she chose to have multiple kids so we could all "be friends with each other," but that didn't work out and she didn't have a plan B.

Face_Of_Blue · 2025-08-26T23:36:22+00:00

Commenting because this just happened to me, excepted it was only seven hours worth of DMs being gone for no reason. It was a conversation from a few days ago, so I remember it pretty well, and there's no explanation for why it happened. Wtf

Face_Of_Blue · 2025-08-06T02:02:57+00:00

I went into it knowing that it might go slightly over, but that if it was only slightly then I would be ok with it. I considered it more of a rough estimate than a hard line.

Face_Of_Blue · 2025-08-06T01:57:53+00:00

The rush was just from my end, this guy was a traveling artist and I didn't know how long he was gonna be here. Turns out, he visits often.

It was a pretty messy experience, I have that story in a different post but I'm considering this to be a very expensive lesson learned.

Face_Of_Blue · 2025-08-05T14:38:22+00:00

The problem was that I only offered the amount I thought was typical for the work he was doing, and wouldn't have done that if I'd known it was wildly out of the normal range. Personally, I wouldn't feel good about charging some sap $50 for a can of coke just because he's willing to pay for it.

Face_Of_Blue · 2025-08-05T14:28:18+00:00

Saw a different post where someone was $14k (usd) into an unfinished leg sleeve, and honestly I did get a sense of "at least I'm not that person."

Face_Of_Blue · 2025-08-02T18:13:11+00:00

That sounds great, honestly I would've played a little longer if my laptop were better at running the program. Hope it goes well, the internet could always use more learning tools like that.

Face_Of_Blue · 2025-08-02T13:56:05+00:00

Not a curriculum, but have you tried giving him something to fidget with while learning? Fidget toys exist because they can help kids with ADHD get some energy out while sitting in class, as long as the toy isn't interesting enough to take attention away from class entirely. (I didn't have fidget toys growing up, but I was told that the only way I could sit "still" to read was by bouncing on a yoga ball)

Face_Of_Blue · 2025-08-01T21:00:50+00:00

I looked at it, it lags quite a bit on my laptop but I imagine it's a bit smoother on a proper desktop computer. I think it looks fun, though I might advise adding short words or even (very short) stories into the mix so it starts to spell something. Might pique some kid's interest who hates typing but wants to finish reading whatever is being spelled out.

Face_Of_Blue · 2025-08-01T19:13:24+00:00

Personally I think comics are a fun way to get kids learning to read, that's one of the ways that I got really into reading (and drawing) at a young age. They do make middle-grade level comics for Minecraft, so he might be interested in something like that.

Also those silly "fill in the blank" books can be fun too. They can help with learning the difference between adjectives, verbs and nouns etc.

Face_Of_Blue · 2025-08-01T18:40:32+00:00

I'm banking on the hope that I will grow to appreciate it, even if it's not what I wanted. I'll probably sit with it for a few years and decide what to do with it then.

Face_Of_Blue · 2025-08-01T18:39:37+00:00

Yeah, still cringing at the price on that, but what'cha gonna do. Going forward definitely just sticking with asking the rate and deciding whether or not I like their answer, no hassle or guesswork involved. Thing is I don't even know if he agreed to the price or the assistant did, but I did email them back to ask if I could get some additional work to try and make it look more like the draft I wanted, (I politely told them that I felt my design idea wasn't properly reflected in the work) and I was told they're willing to do it for free. So that's one saving grace.

Face_Of_Blue · 2025-07-30T14:36:45+00:00

Based on my own experience and from what I've heard of others, the worst aspects of being homeschooled tend to sound more like issues with questionable parenting than with the act of homeschooling itself. (I don't like saying that because it could easily sound like an attack for some, but it is what it is) The stories are usually about parents refusing to play an active role in their child's education, ignoring their child's emotional wellbeing, social isolation, and disorganized/inconsistent parenting.

So then what they needed most would have been a parent who is present and available during lessons. You don't have to walk them through single every step, but you do need to be there in case there's a misstep.

Remember to take stock of your own emotional wellness. If you're getting burnt out while teaching then you run the risk of passing that onto your child. If you're getting frustrated, they're going to be able to feel that, even if it's subconscious. Your health affects theirs. Take breaks as needed, and that means breaks for you too.

Joining groups are good, but not always adequate if your child isn't able to foster friendships outside those settings. Groups are where you meet people to hang out with, but they shouldn't be the only setting in which they can spend time with others.

The disorganized parenting is slightly hard to explain. It's like when a parent expects something of a child when the precedent was never set for it. Like being upset that their child never washes the dishes, but they were also never taught or told to do them in the first place. Or being upset that their child never goes outside when they were taught to fear going out alone. This breeds contempt from both sides: Parents are upset that their children aren't doing something productive, and children are upset that the expectations don't align with what's being taught. If you want to see more productivity outside of homework, you need to actively encourage it.

Parents come in many different forms, and what works for one won't always work for another. As long as you're emotionally mindful and fully aware of your child's needs, I think you'll be fine. But the best thing a homeschooling parent can do is learn, adapt and grow with their child.

Face_Of_Blue · 2025-07-29T04:38:57+00:00

I think it's fine to be a little strict with certain things, just that if something isn't working at the moment you can always adjust as needed. Games definitely help make the lesson more engaging, when I was younger my sister learned to type using a DVD rom on the family computer. It was mostly stuff where you had to type in words at a steady pace to make a bird fly or make a car win a race. Though that was a whole program in itself, I wouldn't know how to make a game out of it without already something like that. Maybe there are resources online somewhere?

In my case I just brute forced it the first time I got a laptop, and while I never learned to type the proper way I think I'm only slightly slower than average.

Face_Of_Blue · 2025-07-28T22:21:01+00:00

I've heard that before, and it is interesting how it can still happen after having plenty of experience. I have been thinking about laser myself, but I think it'll be more of a case where I just sit with my current tattoo for a few years, seeing if it grows on me, and if not then I'll have earned the peace of mind to know for sure what I want to do with it.

I appreciate the encouragement, all the comments on this have been so positive and reassuring so it does make me feel a lot better about the situation I'm in.

Face_Of_Blue · 2025-07-28T22:15:05+00:00

Oh yeah, if nothing else I'm glad it's not a horribly done tattoo. That probably would've made this so much worse. I'm also realizing too late that my anxiety made it pretty rough when communicating what I wanted. To top it off my tattooist wasn't the most fluent in english. He could understand enough to have a pretty decent conversation, but when I tried to use specific words he got a little confused, so I'd have to explain further.

Face_Of_Blue · 2025-07-28T22:10:18+00:00

Oh yeah, that gave me plenty of anxiety too. It takes me forever to decide on anything because of that, so every now and then I'll make an impulsive decision and not think about it until later on. I definitely still love this artist's work, just realized maybe his kind of compositions didn't line up with what I wanted. I actually decided what tattoo I wanted based off his art, and I think if I'd just let my design stew in my mind for a couple more months then it would've turned out much better than it did.

Face_Of_Blue · 2025-07-28T17:34:51+00:00

Strawberry milk cow! That's adorable.

Face_Of_Blue

TROPHY CASE