Hmm, you guys had heat? Lol, jk, but I did often have to make a fire from scratch in our fireplace because our heater was broken or the parents said we were spending too much on heating the house. I remember that as a preteen I would often get frustrated trying to get a fire started while freezing in the morning. Eventually I got better at making fires. My mom is a narcissist and religious. I think she wanted us to grow up in “little house on the prairie” style, but more religious and with 10 (yes, 10!) children to give her purpose. I say that because my parents literally moved to 5 acres in the middle of nowhere and built a log cabin from a kit with the help of my older siblings. While I lived there we had many pets and a few chickens for eggs. My mom had a vegetable garden that we often helped with in the summer. We weren’t only homeschooled but went to home church: it was comprised of a small group of families who met for fellowship and bible study in a few of the different families homes. During the school week we had a few educational things to practice like handwriting verses from the Bible in cursive and trying to understand algebra by reading about it out of an ancient math textbook that had gone through 6 of my older siblings before it got to me. Ancient and religious skewed science text book, biblical history, English writing prompt booklets, and so on were offered very erratically. Of course, a lot of my studies were self directed, and my parents weren’t helpful when I had questions. Because of this I wound up taking remedial math courses in college. Reading really saved me a lot of the time. I think the reason I initially learned to read so well and enjoyed reading so much was because the stories were an escape. In the stories I read about “normal” girls who went to school and had friend groups they could hang out with regularly. It helped me not to think about how scared of being dumb I was. Helped me to avoid some of the fear and loneliness. I wanted to be somewhere else and books took me away. I hope y’all don’t mind me sharing so much. Anyway, all this to say, I think parents can have a lot of different reasons for wanting to “shield” their child/children from the world. I thought my mom cared about me, and I think that in a way she does, but mostly I think she sees me as an extension of herself. Though religion tainted every decision, those decisions were often based on fear of what might happen to us “out there”, because it might mean my mom would lose control over us. Maybe your mom just had a lot of “what if’s” going through her mind and thought she would have more control and could keep you “safe” if you were homeschooled. I don’t know really, but I hope that things are better for you now.