Homeschool Opposition, The Nay Sayers

One of the most challenging parts of being a homeschool family is dealing with those wonderful people that feel you shouldn't. Of those people, family members are the absolute worst. When in the general population, if someone disagrees with homeschooling, they tend to just roll their eyes and keep their comments to themselves (or if they do comment, you can walk away). However, have a family member, oh say a grandparent or aunt that feels homeschooling is done only by weirdos and you get an ear full on a constant basis.

Every once in a while you may run into someone in public that doesn't agree with homeschooling. We have only had this happen a few times. I've been ready to dish out a quick, "It's our legal right to make this choice for our family." However, what I have found is that my children are very assertive and capable of defending their right to be homeschooled all on there own.

Our household really only has one opposer. We have a huge extended family, so I think only having one is extremely lucky. She lives 6 hours away so we don't see her very much, but she does call often. The conversation generally takes a nose dive when she asks the innocent sounding question of, "So, how is homeschool going?" Coming from anyone else in the world, I'm happy and quick to answer this question. Coming from this relative I know it's her spring board for lecture on socialization, learning discipline by sitting in a classroom all day, my incapabilities, well, the list will go on and on if I let it. The conversation always ends with her asking me exactly when my husband and I will allow our kids to go to school like normal children.

So, how do we deal with this relative? At first we repeatedly told her the reasons why we homeschool (which you can find here). Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to resinate with her or she just feels her opinions should change our mind. So, now we simply tell her we are not having the discussion again. If she persist, we get off the phone.

How do you or would you handle those people that disagree with you homeschooling?