How could homeschooling be less stressful for parents?

People often wonder how homeschoolers do it. Homeschooling seems like it would be so much work and a lot of unnecessary stress. Wouldn’t it be easier for homeschoolers to send their children to school?

After several years of homeschooling, I would say that homeschooling is actually LESS stressful for parents than public school in many ways. Homeschooling is a lot of work and can be stressful at times, but there are so many things that homeschoolers simply don’t have to do or worry about.

1. We don’t have to rush out of the house early every morning.

2. There are no long waits in the drop-off and pick-up lines or morning rush hour traffic to deal with.

3. Our children are sick less often. When they are sick, we don’t need a doctor’s excuse or fret over unexcused absences.

4. Our evenings aren’t spent on homework, projects, or other busy work.

5. We can spend more time together as a family.

6. We don’t have to bother our friends, neighbors, and loved ones with multiple fundraisers each year.

7. We are in control of our schedule and don’t have to ask the school’s permission to take our own children on vacation.

8. We don’t have to pack lunches.

9. We know what our children are being taught each day and that they are learning.

10. Bullies are rarely an issue.

11. We don’t have to worry about school violence and bomb threats.

12. We don’t stress about which teacher our children will get or worry about entrusting our children to strangers.

13. There are no PTA meetings or parent-teacher conferences to attend.

14. We don’t have to concern ourselves with whatever the current new trend in education is. We just do what works.

15. We don’t have to worry as much over peer pressure and what our children are exposed to.

16. There’s no school constantly requesting money.

17. We don’t have to worry over how long school will be canceled because of a natural disaster, flu epidemic, or other events.

18. We can make our appointments and run errands during the school day when everything is much less crowded.

19. We don’t have to purchase a long list of school supplies. We only buy what we need.

20. We can be sure our children’s education is consistent with our family’s faith and values.

Homeschooling really is less stressful!

Sometimes, when homeschooling gets overwhelming, I think about how much “easier” it would be to send the kids to school. I could get a break from the kids, have a full-time career again, the house would be cleaner, etc. But then I think back to when our oldest was in school and my own 12 years as a public school student. I remember the stress of many of the things listed above and remind myself that the grass isn’t greener on the other side of the fence. Plus, I’d miss my kids if they were gone to school all day!

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Note: This post was originally published on May 30, 2020.