You Decide Who I Am

I am still Homeschool Atheist Momma!

Secular homeschool am I am atheist I don’t believe in God doubting god and religion Atheist parenting secular parenting freethinking parenting homeschool secular challenging children homeschool high school

I had an epiphany today.
A rather obvious epiphany, but an epiphany nonetheless.

I am a completely normal human being. I am pretty great at some things. I suck at some things. I have made some huge errors in my life, some just this week. I have made some excellent decisions. 

I have done fuckall shit. I have done great shit. I have been an absolutely horrible parent. I have been a model parent.

Truly, I have been human. My parenting has run the gamut from crap to exceptional.

Well-meaning, lazy, learning, thoughtful, loving, shaming, affectionate, sympathetic, supportive, boring, crass, intelligent, creative, introverted, extroverted, positive, negative, plucky, finicky, interested, gullible, thin-skinned, tacky, exuberant, self-absorbed, insecure, generous, gentle, charming, funny, snobby, embarrassing, impotent, peaceful, kind, genuine, forgetful, a failure, a success...

So when you look at me, when you think of me, you can see exactly who you want to see. Do you think of me as a complete bitch? There is massive evidence that that is true. Do you think of me as a gentle and loving woman? Evidence is piling up that this is the truth. Do you think that I am a fuck up? Many events point to that as the truth. Do you think that my heart is always in the right place? I can prove that this is true. Do you think that I am a person to avoid? Many parts of me prove that that is fact. Do you view me as a person to go to in time of need? This, too, is the truth.

As a wise person recently told me, it’s not what you look at, it’s what you see.   (It was my son who said that to me!)

Therefore, if you, as the person with the eyes, choose to see me in some light, you will find every evidence that you are absolutely correct. If someone else has a definition of me, that definition speaks far more about them than about me.

So, yes, I am the person that you think I am.


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LAFFING

 I am still Homeschool Atheist Momma!

secular homeschoolSecular homeschool am I am atheist I don’t believe in God doubting god and religion Atheist parenting secular parenting freethinking parenting homeschool secular challenging children

Is anyone here familiar with The Celestial Teapot magazine?
http://celestialteapotmagazine.com/
I've been asked to write a parenting column and I just don't know enough about the mag and I'm looking for feedback. I have written a few posts for the website but I'm unfamiliar with the magazine
Thanks

Have you ever heard of Rich Lyon's podcase called Living After Faith?  Rich is a minister turned atheist who has a huge atheist online community and podcast. 

I discovered the LAF podcast when former minister Rich Lyons interviewed Seth Andrews from The Thinking Atheist podcast, my favorite podcast ever. Rich must have read a comment that I left on The Thinking Atheist Living After Faith podcast on homeschool because he came here to my blog.

He asked me this question:

I'm past the homeschooling age, as my daughter is in her third year of college. But, as an atheist, I am intrigued by the atheist homeschooling movement.

I was very familiar with homeschooling in the xtian circles when I was a pastor, but this is the first I've seen of it in the secular world. The xtians I knew who home schooled did so because they didn't want their kids "polluted" by worldly thinking, and the material and quality of education was not so good. I know a kid who didn't get her GED until she was 22-years-old, because of poor home schooling. 

I'm interested in why you homeschool, whether you feel like your kids are getting a better education, and why.

Also, were you once a xtian, and did you start homeschooling when you were in a church?

I love what you're doing, and please understand my questions are not critical. I think there is a wonderful world of discovery for parents who are willing to take the time to find it with their kids. I think you may be on to something that is awesome! 

After I took a moment to pick myself up from my fan girling, my response to Rich was:

Like most people in this country, the first I knew of the new homeschooling movement was the moms in denim, seeking to keep their children out of the majority. Seeking to keep the children's exposure limited to good, clean Christian things. 

Then my best friend started homeschooling. She was a Christian at the time, though she is not one now. From her, I was able to see what secular homeschooling could look like and I loved it!

My own religious history came in phases. My parents were from different religious traditions (Catholic and Methodist) and enjoyed a great deal of stress from their respective families about this. I ASSume that is why our family did not go to church at all when I was a kid. 

I, however, thought that GOOD PEOPLE went to church, so I often went to churches with family and friends. 

Eventually, after my parents divorced, my dad started taking the four of us to Catholic church regularly. I was a very strong Catholic for about twenty years. But I had my doubts and, because I wasn't indoctrinated at an early age, I felt freedom to ask questions of stories and things that I thought were pretty obviously nonsense or that were conflicting. I did get enough of that good Catholic guilt to keep my struggling for a loooong time.

I STRUGGLED with that for about ten years on my own. 

Finally, when my daughter was still a newborn, I remember the night clearly, I was reading the Bible and I realized, I don't believe any of this!!!!!!
It was a wonderful moment for me!

Anyway, so I was an atheist long before we began homeschooling.

I appreciate your questions anytime! I enjoyed hearing you on "The Thinking Atheist" podcast and I'm thrilled that you came to my blog!

Rick Lyons is also on Facebook:  http://facebook.com/LivingAfterFaith
And Twitter:  http://twitter.com/LAFwithme

MAN, Do I LOVE the INTERNET! 

Have you had any run-ins with online celebs?

OOOOO...I hope Seth Andrews comes here to my blog one day!

SWOON.

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I am still Homeschool Atheist Momma!

Secular homeschool am I am atheist I don’t believe in God doubting god and religion Atheist parenting secular parenting freethinking parenting homeschool secular challenging children

OMGosh, I am literally laughing out loud because I am sitting here listening to my son and one of his best friends in the middle of one of their intricate discussions of fantasy and reality. Would you believe that there is a spider that bites a camel, injecting it with some sort of neurotoxin that makes the poor camel unable to move, and then eats the camel alive.

Yeah.

Homeschool kids tend to have the most interesting conversations; I LOVE listening to the conversations when I get the chance.

The other day, while this same best friend was here, I overheard one of the boys saying, I am so joyful; it's just not right!!!!!!

It is a lovely advantage that homeschooled kids have, in my opinion: the ability to spend many, many hours together in complex fantasy worlds of imagination without any sort of outside interruption. In this case the boys have been together for four days and nights. The story lines to their pretending have been so intricate and interesting!

For John, I'm so glad to be home in the US where he can spend this kind of time with other kids who are like-minded in terms of what they enjoy playing.

In order to keep this a positive story, I'm not going to mention the complete demolition of my family room.

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I am still Homeschool Atheist Momma!

Secular ethics morals homeschool am I am atheist I don’t believe in God doubting god and religion Atheist parenting secular parenting freethinking parenting homeschool secular challenging children

It was raining today and we were driving along doing some chores, visiting, and finally heading home. We saw a traffic sign on the side of the road that read Lights on when wipers are on, it's the law. Well I have this THING about being told what to do, especially when ridiculous things are LAW. Not just a good idea. Law.

So I said to the kids In my opinion it's a great idea to have lights on when my windshield wipers are on because it helps us all to see one another, but a law?!  That pisses me off. 

So I turned off my wipers.

The kids started getting nervous.

(I should mention that we were perfectly safe the entire time and I was just playing around.)

Mom, you have to understand, they both said, we are going to drive the speed limit, send cards on birthdays, follow street signs, read directions on recipes, give Mother's Day cards ON Mother's Day!, return library books on time, never drink or smoke, have sex only in committed relationships...and FOLLOW THE RULES!!!!!! We are going to follow the rules, Mom!!!! 

And we are never going to smoke weed!

Oh MOTHER!

As they shouting silly things at me I started cringing and saying Nooooooooo in mock anguish. 

Say it isn't so!!! 

Don't follow the rules!

Never send me a card on a holiday!!!! 

Don't fret around the holidays about what to buy me!

LOL

It was a riot and we all laughed and enjoyed it.

But isn't that just the way of the pendulum? All of the freedom that I have fought for and demanded during my adult years and my kids are going to swing all of the way over to conservative Rule Followers.  

Ironic, but history shows that these swings are quite predictable.  Damn it all.

Then again, that is what freedom is all about. 

P.S. I do not smoke pot. One day I told the kids that I would love to try LSD or mushrooms sometime. Not at a lifestyle, but as a life experience. They freaked. Of course, I never did it.

 

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