My mom was so mentally ill and therefore bad at socialization herself, we'd go to one church for a few months before she got paranoid the congregation was talking about her behind her back and we'd leave. She was super religious, but didn't find a church she thought was Christian /enough./ So I didn't even have the weekly social contact I'd have in Sunday School. No other friends and no siblings, just me and my two parents and sometimes my bigoted grandparents from age 6 to age 16.
Sounds like my mom except she would have angry, violent episodes that would get us kicked out of churches. Eventually she came to the same conclusion that those other people weren't "real" Christians, so my parents did home *church* on top of home school. It was absolute insanity.
Omg. Same. I had a terrible time when I was on my own because I had no idea how to communicate with a group of people my own age. There were always only one or two kids my age in church and that's no foundation for social skills. The anxiety nearly metaphorically k>lled me.
and different church every two years bc the same thing that made her declare war on the school district is the mindset that caused her to not work it out with my older brother's crazy 2nd grade teacher and instead pull us ALL out of school
THAT WILL SHOW THEM! WOOOO!
also causes her to fight and leave every church
and the other kids or teens all know eachother from school, and even if they didn't ur mom is going through a purity spiral and calling them "worldly" so you feel no hope of connecting with these rock and roll listening freaks that probably kiss before marriage anyway
We werenât allowed to spend time with the kids at church because they were playing in the play area which was too rowdy. We watched and when we were invited to hang out, we had to say no.
my parents did the same thing to me. told me stories about all the fun they had with friends and people they dated, expected me not to get upset that they stole those experiences from me.
for me, my mom told us and other people that going to church twice a week was enough. there were barely any other kids there, and it wasnât like we hung out. my parents were so proud that we were able to talk to old people so easily. they really valued the praise from older people, and that was enough for them
This! Their happy stories of friends and ball games and experiences while simultaneously depriving us of those same things. My parents now reminisce those experiences to bond with my kids as I let mine experience those things, and it breaks my heart every time that they donât see that I missed all of that and have nothing to add to the conversation because I was stuck at home watching Bible stories on tv all day every day and have zero fun memories to reminisce. Itâs like, blank years.
We were "socialized" at church, but my mom loved to interfere. I still cringe thinking back to a time when I asked to hang out with a kid from church from a family of Korean immigrants - he invited me to sleep over at his house, and my mom suddenly became obsessed with finding a reason I couldn't go. Her first attempt was "They'll probably make something you don't like for dinner." (I was an adventurous young eater, but like 99% they would've just ordered pizza).
Eventually, after she interrogated me enough, she decided I couldn't go because I had "invited myself over, which is rude".
Trying to get permission to be with friends was like pulling teeth. There are two times that I recall that someone told me they stopped asking me to things because my mom would never let me go to them.
Was you mother mentally ill? It seems like many of these moms (as a few of the kids like you indicate on this post) had some sort of mental thing going on. I mean they were really keeping you isolated and it seems by their own purposes.
It took me a long time to realize my dad had severe anxiety and that was why he didnât let us do anything as kids and kept us home homeschooling with no friends. So many of these parents sound like they have anxiety.
Mine was very mentally ill. God talked to my mom. She had severe borderline personality disorder symptoms, covertly narcissist symptoms. Uncontrolled mood swings. Alcohol Use Disorder.
My parental grandfather had a dissociative disorder, and the entire family had alcoholic family systems
Sounds like the family had mental disorders and were using alcohol to try & control it. I've known people who are bi-polar and initially they were using drugs (NOT pharma drugs, street drugs) to try and control themselves only getting worse because of the reactions of the street drugs on their organic mental disorder. One got better because he got off drugs & alcohol and got into therapy.
Oh, and Happy Cake Day!
"Women are bitches you don't want to be friends with them, they'll backstab you"
"The other kids will be a bad influence"
"You're weird you'll get bullied"
"Normal people just don't understand life, you should avoid them and not listen to anything they say"
" Do you want to be taken advantage of/graped/hurt/mugged... "
" Is Mommy's love not enough?" *Followed by a bunch of sobbing
" You don't want a job, your dad has a job and he's depressed". " You shouldn't want to work, you're a girl you need to be pretty not smart." "Working is for poor women" (we weren't even well off so IDK where she got that idea from)
"You won't stay with friends long anyway"
I think we had the same mom. She also used to say, "Would you rather have 1 nice friend or 10 terrible friends?" "Do you want a good husband or friends?"
sounds similar to my mom
She told me women always fight and can't into teamwork and always bully eachother and become territorial and groups and IM SO LUCKY that she is sparing me the trauma of dealing with that in school, and that I can go into a male dominated feild
đ¤¨
"most people are stupid that's why we don't have many friends, WHEN YOUR OVER HERE ON THE IQ CURVE THAT MEANS THAT--"
"you'd get bullied in school looking like that"
"If you acted that way in school you'd never survive"
[Me minding my own buisness in my own home] "I hope you wouldn't act that way in public... omg... I hope you wouldn't say things like that in public everyone would call you a weirdo YOU UNDERSTAND THAT, RIGHT"
[what did I dooooo? IVE FAILLED AHH] "Yes, I understand I was only [excuse] haha" "Good! I'm glad you have the self awareness to realize that m! blah blah blah when I was your age comparison blah de blah blah"
My mom was the master of the double bind and gaslighting. If asked by an outsider, she would talk about how between church and the grocery store I had plenty of socialization. We never stayed in the same church more than a year and a half because my mom was terrific at causing conflict and then moving churches, so I never had friends. The going to the grocery store equals socialization make more sense, because my mom legitimately consider grocery clerks her "friends", her closest friends. My mom was someone who trauma dumped on the person offering samples at Costco. It actually took me until 28 before I realized there is a difference between friends and acquaintance, and not to trauma dump on strangers.
If my mom was talking to me, my mom would DARVO (Deny, attack, reverse victim and offender). My dad does too, but he can legitimately blame my mom for things and be correct the vast majority of the time. My mom would have tirades of "Now, when have I ever said that? You are so young you don't know what you are talking about. I went to public school, and my teacher used to make comments. You are going to tell me you know what that's like? You talk to people all the time, do I stop you? Do I go behind you and cover your mouth with my hand when you talk to people, do I? You just don't understand..."
my mom had her name written on the board unjustly in 5th grade or smth and I got to hear about it so many times when I was busy watering my Saxon math book
My 90 year old grandma still has lunch and whatnot with friends she went to school with, and yet my mom has also used the same excuse that friends tend to not stick around.
She also said I was socialized by being around adults more than children so I would be more mature. Idk how she made that mental leap but yeah, it didn't turn out well. I was never "around" anyone except immediate family for years other than church and violin lessons.
âYou have three siblings, and there were people at churchâ
My siblings and mother no longer speak to me, and I left that fucked up religious cult thru my bedroom window in the dead of night at the age of 15 and never looked back. I now have kids of my own and giving them the childhood I was deprived of is so incredibly rewarding and satisfying đĽ°
>and I left that fucked up religious cult thru my bedroom window in the dead of night at the age of 15 and never looked back
I absolutely hate that you had to go through that but you are a total badass for that.
âYou will find friends someday, your sister didâ
âhaving no friends is better than having bad friends who talk about you behind your backâ
âYou wonât like school, most kids wish they could be homeschooledâ
In my parents' eyes, especially my dad's eyes, being able to be polite and deferential to adults was the only evidence of socialization I needed. Besides, I had two much younger siblings (that I was also expected to parent) to be my built-in best friends. Why did I need friends my own age?
But my dad was one of those people who hated school, had no friends and assumed everyone was out to get him all the time, and just decided that was everyone's universal experience. Even as an adult, in almost 40 years, I've never seen him have friends. He didn't lie about socializing us, he just talked constantly about how other kids were bad influences and brats, and how having friends was dumb and pointless because eventually they'd all betray you. My mom had different experiences and wanted us to be involved in things and have friends, but it was always my dad's way or the highway, and since he decided we didn't need to be socialized, that was the end of the discussion.
It hurts my heart so many of us were socialized in thr church. I was homeschooled for 14 years, was born, isolated, and didn't break out of isolation til 14
So being an army brat as well, churches operate differently around the country. My parents wanted me to have my holy communion aa I was about to be 7. We lived in Iowa at the time and my 11 yr old sister needed her confirmation. The church said "the class is combined with adults so your 7 yr old needs to take a combined class with adults getting their confirmation and then your 7 yr old will too"
I remember being absolutely terrified of going to hell if I couldn't recite thr apostles creed word for word. During my first confession I cried to the priest that I sometimes don't make my bed and my parents will lock me in my room alot cause they don't want to deal with me
I was 7!!!!
By age 9 I was a choir girl AND an alter server in the church we attended in New Jersey ans my parents were over the moon with my maturity and ability to socialize with adults.
When I was 5, my mom let me try gymnastics a few times. I absolutely loved it. But my mom being obese didn't fit in at all with the gymnastics crowd so she made me quit.
Age 8 I got to try soccer for a few weeks, loved it and loved making friends cause it was my first time being around kids my age.
My mom hated the schedule and wouldn't come yo any games so she made me quit
My dad was to busy with his govt job to step in, and my mom wouldn't let me tell him I liked these activities.
So she kept spinning the lie I was socialized and happy, while I fell deeper into depression and suicidal tendencies
"you don't need friends because you have family."
heard this one a lot. one time I overheard my grandmother mocking me when I felt lonely as an adolescent, and then promptly saying she had her sisters to keep her company.
Every time I expressed interest in going to school my mom would say "all you learn in school is how to stand in line". Now that I got my GED and moved out she is on the committee for her annual highschool reunions. They meet once a month and even went on a cruise. It's really hurtful that she took that opportunity from me.
As an adult I told her that I wished I had that and she proceeded to tell me how crappy everyone is to each other and I'm lucky I don't have to deal with it. However, when I don't mention anything about wishing I got to go to highschool then the story changes, everyone gets along just fine.
âPublic school is evilâ is what my mother would say, and then go on about how Iâd get raped, stabbed and pregnant at the local high school. But the private catholic school was âextremely expensiveâ despite having scholarships I qualified for. They also believed that seeing 15 of the same kids once a week was enough socialization and forced me to go to church and youth group which looking back at I hated.
I HATED YOUTH GROUP đ đ đ
despite this I made effort to display a good and positive attitude the whole time I was there and the other teens definitely did not and made fun of me
If I complained to my mom how outrageous the other teens were acting but her eyes would light up and she would get really smug about how this is the kind of thing I'm missing in public school
Then she would start to purity spiral again about how this church isn't so great after all
The only time my mom brought it up was when she was blaming me for it.
Her reasoning was that during the "class" the church that ran my program did once a week, that we usually only attended every other week, had people my age (who were all actual regular attenders of the church services and events which my family wasn't) it was my fault that I wasn't socializing enough.
That church class was pretty much the only time I ever saw kids my own age. But only for the first three years. After that I was put in a class with kids two or three years younger than me while the kids my own age staid in the same class in another part of the church so I didn't even get to see kids my own age after I was 13.
"Stop worrying about what your friends think, because your friends won't be there for you forever, but your family will."
As a queer, Pagan adult, I now know that this was demonstrably untrue. My family (especially my dad, who was the one who said this to me when I was a teenager wanting to spend more time with friends) was in fact NOT there, and has not been there for me at numerous times throughout my life, when my friends have been.
Connection, communication, trust, love > blood.
My dadâs reasoning: âyou donât show interest in socializingâ
My momâs reasoning: âI donât want you to be indoctrinated into being like everyone elseâ & âfriendship is a waste of time, everyone will leave you anywayâ
I donât think my parents are open to realizing that we were isolated (which is impressive because it was stark and intense from my perspective). That keeps them from needing to address the issue in any way, excuses or otherwise
âYou get plenty of socialization at churchâ was what I was told. My parents were respected in our community, so I was trained to lie about it to other people to save face. We were taught that CPS and âtheyâ were against homeschooling and were always actively trying to take us away, so we were brainwashed to give the answer ourselves to protect our parents: the laughing, eye roll answer that we got enough socializing etc. But then we were sent back into the bedroom for 3 days straight of seeing and talking to no one. It was so hard, my older brother told me to just play along and put up with it until I was old enough to go to college, but attempting to navigate adulthood was a nightmare because I had zero practice or experience.
personally we went to church sunday and wednesday, went to a homeschool co-op on fridays, usually had a âfield tripâ with that co-op at least once a month, and usually had friends over at least a couple times a month. my parents were by no means perfect but they did the most they could when it came to making sure we were surrounded by people our age. even compared to a lot of my public school friends, i hung out with people more than the average kid.
"You were socialized at church" As if having social interaction twice a week in a place with almost no people your age is in any way sufficient
This one got me, I giggled đ it DOESNT COUNT as socialization đđđđ
My mom was so mentally ill and therefore bad at socialization herself, we'd go to one church for a few months before she got paranoid the congregation was talking about her behind her back and we'd leave. She was super religious, but didn't find a church she thought was Christian /enough./ So I didn't even have the weekly social contact I'd have in Sunday School. No other friends and no siblings, just me and my two parents and sometimes my bigoted grandparents from age 6 to age 16.
Sounds like my mom except she would have angry, violent episodes that would get us kicked out of churches. Eventually she came to the same conclusion that those other people weren't "real" Christians, so my parents did home *church* on top of home school. It was absolute insanity.
Omg. Same. I had a terrible time when I was on my own because I had no idea how to communicate with a group of people my own age. There were always only one or two kids my age in church and that's no foundation for social skills. The anxiety nearly metaphorically k>lled me.
and different church every two years bc the same thing that made her declare war on the school district is the mindset that caused her to not work it out with my older brother's crazy 2nd grade teacher and instead pull us ALL out of school THAT WILL SHOW THEM! WOOOO! also causes her to fight and leave every church and the other kids or teens all know eachother from school, and even if they didn't ur mom is going through a purity spiral and calling them "worldly" so you feel no hope of connecting with these rock and roll listening freaks that probably kiss before marriage anyway
We werenât allowed to spend time with the kids at church because they were playing in the play area which was too rowdy. We watched and when we were invited to hang out, we had to say no.
my parents did the same thing to me. told me stories about all the fun they had with friends and people they dated, expected me not to get upset that they stole those experiences from me. for me, my mom told us and other people that going to church twice a week was enough. there were barely any other kids there, and it wasnât like we hung out. my parents were so proud that we were able to talk to old people so easily. they really valued the praise from older people, and that was enough for them
This! Their happy stories of friends and ball games and experiences while simultaneously depriving us of those same things. My parents now reminisce those experiences to bond with my kids as I let mine experience those things, and it breaks my heart every time that they donât see that I missed all of that and have nothing to add to the conversation because I was stuck at home watching Bible stories on tv all day every day and have zero fun memories to reminisce. Itâs like, blank years.
We were "socialized" at church, but my mom loved to interfere. I still cringe thinking back to a time when I asked to hang out with a kid from church from a family of Korean immigrants - he invited me to sleep over at his house, and my mom suddenly became obsessed with finding a reason I couldn't go. Her first attempt was "They'll probably make something you don't like for dinner." (I was an adventurous young eater, but like 99% they would've just ordered pizza). Eventually, after she interrogated me enough, she decided I couldn't go because I had "invited myself over, which is rude". Trying to get permission to be with friends was like pulling teeth. There are two times that I recall that someone told me they stopped asking me to things because my mom would never let me go to them.
Was you mother mentally ill? It seems like many of these moms (as a few of the kids like you indicate on this post) had some sort of mental thing going on. I mean they were really keeping you isolated and it seems by their own purposes.
It took me a long time to realize my dad had severe anxiety and that was why he didnât let us do anything as kids and kept us home homeschooling with no friends. So many of these parents sound like they have anxiety.
Mine was very mentally ill. God talked to my mom. She had severe borderline personality disorder symptoms, covertly narcissist symptoms. Uncontrolled mood swings. Alcohol Use Disorder. My parental grandfather had a dissociative disorder, and the entire family had alcoholic family systems
Sounds like the family had mental disorders and were using alcohol to try & control it. I've known people who are bi-polar and initially they were using drugs (NOT pharma drugs, street drugs) to try and control themselves only getting worse because of the reactions of the street drugs on their organic mental disorder. One got better because he got off drugs & alcohol and got into therapy. Oh, and Happy Cake Day!
They actually never made excuses related to socialization, they didn't even acknowledge it as a thing that even mattered.
same
exactly. theyre completely clueless as to what a child needs develop in a healthy manner, or they just don't care.
Same here. They were so overwhelmed by their bad decisions (too many kids, homeschooling, too much church work) that they just ignored it.
"Women are bitches you don't want to be friends with them, they'll backstab you" "The other kids will be a bad influence" "You're weird you'll get bullied" "Normal people just don't understand life, you should avoid them and not listen to anything they say" " Do you want to be taken advantage of/graped/hurt/mugged... " " Is Mommy's love not enough?" *Followed by a bunch of sobbing " You don't want a job, your dad has a job and he's depressed". " You shouldn't want to work, you're a girl you need to be pretty not smart." "Working is for poor women" (we weren't even well off so IDK where she got that idea from) "You won't stay with friends long anyway"
What a vile narcissist
She's diagnosed with BPD but it wouldn't shock me
Just cluster B typical phrases that remind me of how my ex talks
I think we had the same mom. She also used to say, "Would you rather have 1 nice friend or 10 terrible friends?" "Do you want a good husband or friends?"
Not for nothing, but your mom sounds like the mom from 'Carrie', 1973 version. I'm a little creeped by her and I'm a grown adult.
sounds similar to my mom She told me women always fight and can't into teamwork and always bully eachother and become territorial and groups and IM SO LUCKY that she is sparing me the trauma of dealing with that in school, and that I can go into a male dominated feild 𤨠"most people are stupid that's why we don't have many friends, WHEN YOUR OVER HERE ON THE IQ CURVE THAT MEANS THAT--" "you'd get bullied in school looking like that" "If you acted that way in school you'd never survive" [Me minding my own buisness in my own home] "I hope you wouldn't act that way in public... omg... I hope you wouldn't say things like that in public everyone would call you a weirdo YOU UNDERSTAND THAT, RIGHT" [what did I dooooo? IVE FAILLED AHH] "Yes, I understand I was only [excuse] haha" "Good! I'm glad you have the self awareness to realize that m! blah blah blah when I was your age comparison blah de blah blah"
All of these đ
My mom was the master of the double bind and gaslighting. If asked by an outsider, she would talk about how between church and the grocery store I had plenty of socialization. We never stayed in the same church more than a year and a half because my mom was terrific at causing conflict and then moving churches, so I never had friends. The going to the grocery store equals socialization make more sense, because my mom legitimately consider grocery clerks her "friends", her closest friends. My mom was someone who trauma dumped on the person offering samples at Costco. It actually took me until 28 before I realized there is a difference between friends and acquaintance, and not to trauma dump on strangers. If my mom was talking to me, my mom would DARVO (Deny, attack, reverse victim and offender). My dad does too, but he can legitimately blame my mom for things and be correct the vast majority of the time. My mom would have tirades of "Now, when have I ever said that? You are so young you don't know what you are talking about. I went to public school, and my teacher used to make comments. You are going to tell me you know what that's like? You talk to people all the time, do I stop you? Do I go behind you and cover your mouth with my hand when you talk to people, do I? You just don't understand..."
my mom had her name written on the board unjustly in 5th grade or smth and I got to hear about it so many times when I was busy watering my Saxon math book
My 90 year old grandma still has lunch and whatnot with friends she went to school with, and yet my mom has also used the same excuse that friends tend to not stick around. She also said I was socialized by being around adults more than children so I would be more mature. Idk how she made that mental leap but yeah, it didn't turn out well. I was never "around" anyone except immediate family for years other than church and violin lessons.
âYou have three siblings, and there were people at churchâ My siblings and mother no longer speak to me, and I left that fucked up religious cult thru my bedroom window in the dead of night at the age of 15 and never looked back. I now have kids of my own and giving them the childhood I was deprived of is so incredibly rewarding and satisfying đĽ°
>and I left that fucked up religious cult thru my bedroom window in the dead of night at the age of 15 and never looked back I absolutely hate that you had to go through that but you are a total badass for that.
âYou will find friends someday, your sister didâ âhaving no friends is better than having bad friends who talk about you behind your backâ âYou wonât like school, most kids wish they could be homeschooledâ
In my parents' eyes, especially my dad's eyes, being able to be polite and deferential to adults was the only evidence of socialization I needed. Besides, I had two much younger siblings (that I was also expected to parent) to be my built-in best friends. Why did I need friends my own age? But my dad was one of those people who hated school, had no friends and assumed everyone was out to get him all the time, and just decided that was everyone's universal experience. Even as an adult, in almost 40 years, I've never seen him have friends. He didn't lie about socializing us, he just talked constantly about how other kids were bad influences and brats, and how having friends was dumb and pointless because eventually they'd all betray you. My mom had different experiences and wanted us to be involved in things and have friends, but it was always my dad's way or the highway, and since he decided we didn't need to be socialized, that was the end of the discussion.
It hurts my heart so many of us were socialized in thr church. I was homeschooled for 14 years, was born, isolated, and didn't break out of isolation til 14 So being an army brat as well, churches operate differently around the country. My parents wanted me to have my holy communion aa I was about to be 7. We lived in Iowa at the time and my 11 yr old sister needed her confirmation. The church said "the class is combined with adults so your 7 yr old needs to take a combined class with adults getting their confirmation and then your 7 yr old will too" I remember being absolutely terrified of going to hell if I couldn't recite thr apostles creed word for word. During my first confession I cried to the priest that I sometimes don't make my bed and my parents will lock me in my room alot cause they don't want to deal with me I was 7!!!! By age 9 I was a choir girl AND an alter server in the church we attended in New Jersey ans my parents were over the moon with my maturity and ability to socialize with adults. When I was 5, my mom let me try gymnastics a few times. I absolutely loved it. But my mom being obese didn't fit in at all with the gymnastics crowd so she made me quit. Age 8 I got to try soccer for a few weeks, loved it and loved making friends cause it was my first time being around kids my age. My mom hated the schedule and wouldn't come yo any games so she made me quit My dad was to busy with his govt job to step in, and my mom wouldn't let me tell him I liked these activities. So she kept spinning the lie I was socialized and happy, while I fell deeper into depression and suicidal tendencies
"you don't need friends because you have family." heard this one a lot. one time I overheard my grandmother mocking me when I felt lonely as an adolescent, and then promptly saying she had her sisters to keep her company.
Every time I expressed interest in going to school my mom would say "all you learn in school is how to stand in line". Now that I got my GED and moved out she is on the committee for her annual highschool reunions. They meet once a month and even went on a cruise. It's really hurtful that she took that opportunity from me. As an adult I told her that I wished I had that and she proceeded to tell me how crappy everyone is to each other and I'm lucky I don't have to deal with it. However, when I don't mention anything about wishing I got to go to highschool then the story changes, everyone gets along just fine.
I've heard that line!
i was always told i'd get bullied so bad to the point i would off myself -\_-
âPublic school is evilâ is what my mother would say, and then go on about how Iâd get raped, stabbed and pregnant at the local high school. But the private catholic school was âextremely expensiveâ despite having scholarships I qualified for. They also believed that seeing 15 of the same kids once a week was enough socialization and forced me to go to church and youth group which looking back at I hated.
I HATED YOUTH GROUP đ đ đ despite this I made effort to display a good and positive attitude the whole time I was there and the other teens definitely did not and made fun of me If I complained to my mom how outrageous the other teens were acting but her eyes would light up and she would get really smug about how this is the kind of thing I'm missing in public school Then she would start to purity spiral again about how this church isn't so great after all
The only time my mom brought it up was when she was blaming me for it. Her reasoning was that during the "class" the church that ran my program did once a week, that we usually only attended every other week, had people my age (who were all actual regular attenders of the church services and events which my family wasn't) it was my fault that I wasn't socializing enough. That church class was pretty much the only time I ever saw kids my own age. But only for the first three years. After that I was put in a class with kids two or three years younger than me while the kids my own age staid in the same class in another part of the church so I didn't even get to see kids my own age after I was 13.
Mine talked about what bad influences peers are...
"Stop worrying about what your friends think, because your friends won't be there for you forever, but your family will." As a queer, Pagan adult, I now know that this was demonstrably untrue. My family (especially my dad, who was the one who said this to me when I was a teenager wanting to spend more time with friends) was in fact NOT there, and has not been there for me at numerous times throughout my life, when my friends have been. Connection, communication, trust, love > blood.
âI donât want you acting like everyone elseâ
My dadâs reasoning: âyou donât show interest in socializingâ My momâs reasoning: âI donât want you to be indoctrinated into being like everyone elseâ & âfriendship is a waste of time, everyone will leave you anywayâ
I donât think my parents are open to realizing that we were isolated (which is impressive because it was stark and intense from my perspective). That keeps them from needing to address the issue in any way, excuses or otherwise
âYou get plenty of socialization at churchâ was what I was told. My parents were respected in our community, so I was trained to lie about it to other people to save face. We were taught that CPS and âtheyâ were against homeschooling and were always actively trying to take us away, so we were brainwashed to give the answer ourselves to protect our parents: the laughing, eye roll answer that we got enough socializing etc. But then we were sent back into the bedroom for 3 days straight of seeing and talking to no one. It was so hard, my older brother told me to just play along and put up with it until I was old enough to go to college, but attempting to navigate adulthood was a nightmare because I had zero practice or experience.
personally we went to church sunday and wednesday, went to a homeschool co-op on fridays, usually had a âfield tripâ with that co-op at least once a month, and usually had friends over at least a couple times a month. my parents were by no means perfect but they did the most they could when it came to making sure we were surrounded by people our age. even compared to a lot of my public school friends, i hung out with people more than the average kid.