[jeteaa]

I feel like I'm consistantly choosing the "rough road" of parenting. Examples: We are on the Homeschooling path, I am an athiest, I have only 2 children. Put those together and I'm am a HUGE minority in our community.
With our NFL, our families treat us like we are stuck up snobs because we are parenting differently than they raised us (mine more so than dh).
Can any of you relate?

 

[mama2peyton]

I can relate for sure! My family treats me like I'm an oddball for not doing things the way they did. Especially my SIL! She is older and her kids are older than mine so she likes to "educate" me on babies and toddlers, then she gets upset when she finds out that I am the one that has actually researched more and knows more.

I feel you on the religion thing! I'm an atheist in the Bible belt, and went to a Christian school so I honestly don't know anyone that's not Christian! Fortunately, most of my friends and family have just accepted that they're not changing my mind about it, and they leave me alone about it. I just wish they would leave me alone about everything else!

 

[LavenderMae]

I'm an atheist homeschooling mom living in the bible belt, yeah I can relate.

I have a small circle of people I spend time with and basically I live in my own little world a lot of the time. Finding a truly secular homeschool support group helps and in mine we are fine with and even encourage parents to join before their kids are school age.

 

[dawncayden]

I'm an atheist and plan on homeschooling too. It's not very religious where we live so I don't feel tons of pressure, but I come from a very spiritual family who have a guru and such.
I'm into NFL but I'm also a skeptic, so sometimes that puts me on the opposite spectrum from my NFL friends.
Sometimes I feel like I'm always different from everyone. Except dh, we are pretty similar

 

[Jojo F.]

T.O.T.A.L.L.Y!!!!!!

My family is VERY religious, I am not and DH is an atheist. My family always sends us religious stuff, emails, etc. and it really gets kind of annoying and insulting after a while. I don't try to change their mind and tell them they are wrong. Who know's who is really right anyway?

We homeschool too and although we are not the only one's in our family to do so I still feel like an outcast. (my family lives very far away from me)

We are liberal/independets- my family is a pack of staunch republicans. Which makes no sense to me because the older relatives collect social security, others have had to go on welfare, some get help from the state for health insurance, etc. and I know for a fact the republicans didn't have anything to do with those programs. Discussing polotics is forbidden, it never ends well.

We eat traditional foods, my family and DH's family don't. This is really hard for me because we live with my lovely ILs

They eat SAD and it is sooooo hard with an impressionable 5 year old. I can't say too much about this topic because I get too worked up about it

:

And last but not least, I am a very green minded person and don't put too much stock into what doctors, the FDA, the CDC, etc. have to say. A few key members of DH's family have worked in hospitals and they think doctors are G*Ds and never make mistakes. They think I'm nuts for seeing a midwife, not going to the massive hospital in our area (I was trying really had for a homebirth but am going to birth at a much smaller hospital), not willing to take medications/vaccines, etc. They think the magic little pill and surgery are cures

OK, this subject gets me pretty riled up too.

But all in all I'm really very lucky to have a found a nucleus of friends who think and live the same way I do

I have learned to not put much stock in what family thinks. After a while I have to politely tell them we have to agree to disagree.

 

[Alison's Mom]

We are non religious, have only two children, and are pretty liberal minded. However, we live in a pretty cosmopolitan city where this is pretty normal. Sure, there are people who go to church, etc, but we are by no means weird. I like living here for that reason. We are in the city vs the surburbs and I was really against moving out there because people tend to be more religious and conservative.

I wasn't planning to homeschool but totally appreciate why people do it. In fact, after reading Gordon Neufeld's "Hold Onto Your Kids", I'm also concerned enough about peer pressue to do it (DH would never go for it, though).

:

 

[AbbieB]

Yup.

It was bad enough to be a home birthing, extended nursing, cloth diapering, non vaxing, co sleeping, baby wearing stay at home mom.

Now I can add self care giving, non circing, non EI seeking, tandem nursing, homeschooling, mother of 2, 1 with T21.

I feel like a total freak some days.

 

[Tigerchild]

I'm very much a minority in my family, on all counts. But honestly that's why I sought out (and I'm very grateful I was so lucky as to be able to do that) a place to live where I wasn't so out of place. (although the irony is that now I feel weird sometimes because I'm a lot more conservative in some ways than my chosen community, so sometimes that is lonely as well.)

Even though I'm a loner and introvert, it got to be too much to have to be that way on all fronts. It's so terribly difficult to feel like you never fit in or can't find any common ground with other people.