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There is nothing wrong in choosing a career or a lifestyle and enjoying what
you've chosen, traditional role or untraditional. I want my daughters to see
that being a wife, mother, teacher, secretary etc. is something that they can
certainly do and be content and happy at doing/being rather than following
along with a hurtful "You don't HAVE to be a nurse, wife, mother, etc." (which
rather denigrates their choice to be a nurse, wife, teacher, etc.) and thus
becoming something they don't truly enjoy because women "shouldn't" choose
traditional roles any longer.

Elizabeth in MA

Thank you for saying this, Elizabeth, because I was feeling the same way but
didn't quite know how to express it. I had a few things I wanted to be
growing up because of books I had read that made those careers sound glamorous, but
in my heart all I've really ever wanted to be was a mother and a wife. That
is frowned upon in today's society, and guess what? I DON'T CARE. If I did, I
certainly wouldn't have homeschooled, and CERTAINLY wouldn't be unschooling.
I tried to go back to college and finish my degree in early childhood
education, but even in college, learning just doesn't take it to the level I'm
interested in. With unschooling my son, we've been able to take things to the
deepest level he wants to and in untraditional ways, so that he actually remembers
what he is learning. Quite often I find myself going even deeper on my own
because I can-I don't have to rush off to the next area to "keep up with my
class". What is important to me is to let my children know they have
choices-choices to be anything that makes them happy-whether traditional or
nontraditional. If we were to follow it with "you don't HAVE to be a nurse, secretary,"
etc, then we are imposing and impression that is not fair and balanced and
counteracts all we've worked hard to accomplish in deschooling/unschooling.

Carol