Nasty people with their nasty comments

[anythingelse]

[Alexander]

Ignorant people need books lists.

Carry them with you.

a

[Linda in Arizona]

Sorry you had such a bad experience! I'm trying to avoid conversations about homeschooling with people I don't know well. I think if some one starts being nasty and asking rude questions, it is a good idea to answer with a question, such as, "why would you ask that?" or the Miss Manners approach of saying "Excuse me?" with a tone to imply that what they said was out of line. You don't need to explain yourself to anybody (except your spouse) and it isn't anybody's business.

My best come back so far was when some one rudely asked why on earth we wanted to homeschool and I said it was for the socialization.

[Inwe Surion]

Linda-love that response!

If people are really rude and I just can't get away from them or keep myself under control, I sometimes resort to asking if they were born that way or did they have to learn to be the way they are.

Not very mature but it makes me feel better if all else fails.

[anythingelse]

[Linda in Arizona]

Why are you sorry about venting? That's one of the things this board is here for!

[lilyka]

I feel your pain. those people make me so angry too.

I think it is OK for your kids to see you in this situation though (hard as it may be on all of them) There will come a day when some rude kid wil say something directly to them and they will handle it with either frace, diginity and self assurance or they will feel shame and humiliation over thier way of life. The way they react will have a whole lot to do with how they saw you handle it.

So hold you head high and simply tell the jerk that you don't wish for your child to learn the same bad manners as he/she learned in school. (OK perhaps you should save that one for when your children aren't around )

hugs to you.

Sandra

Don't worry about ranting. We obviously care or we wouldn't have read it. We all need a good safe place to rant about all the evil people of the world.

[laralou]

I like the book list idea, too, Alexander. I made a point list with references to give out on why I refused to medicate ds when he was in public school. Giving them this researched point-by-point paper never failed to shut anyone up. I may need to do the same with hschooling but so far no one's comments are that nasty. Believe me I could do a reverse rant on the public school system if they did.
I have more problems with the subtle comments because the comments eat away at me but they weren't rude enough to call them on it. Like, "I'm sure you miss your friends!" I just said, "No, he doesn't. He still sees his friends." when what I really wanted to do is go off on a 15 minute rant about the idiocy of putting kids in a room with 15 same age kids and calling that socialization like that is any model for what they will face in the real world. Or I wish I had said, "Maybe but he sure doesn't miss the administrators of the school trying to drug him up instead of teaching him or being forced to sit in a chair doing busywork all day because the teacher can't take time to teach him at his level with a class of 15."
If I get anymore cr*p like that I just might make another list. No one has said anything for awhile though. Maybe I look meaner now.

[larsy]

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