----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2000 10:23 AM
Subject: re:changing friends etc...
Hi All, was reading your posts on friends fading
away after the decision to home/unschool...or growing families...I just haven't
had anything like that happen. Almost all of my friends are traditional
public schoolers, and we still get along great..I'll be honest, at first it was
as if some of them felt like because I was home/unschooling for my family
that somehow, I felt that their decisions were not good, but that just was not
the case, and so we got over it....but I could feel that initial defense, from
friends, but as they realized that I was still the same non-judgemental person i
have always been, and that I respect that everyone makes the choices that are
best for them and their family, just as I expect they respect mine. Now I
kind of jokingly, as I consider just about every outing a home/unschooling
experience, when we are doing things together, I say" hey this is
homeschooling experience" because my opinion lies in the fact that we are all
learning from our environments, and off school time , is just as valuable
.......and we all smile, cause inside, they too are enjoying their time
with their children, and if I define it as "home/unschooling" that 's fine with
them, cause they would like to get ina little home/unschooling themselves,
and this makes them feel included, rather than excluded. But I have had
long time friendships fade over time, not for schooling reasons, but for other
reasons, and I see this sort as a natural flow of things, when something has
given , and received all it can from one source it moves on,
sometimes......things are merely shifting. But it's the friends I've had ,
well the one friend, I've had for 10 + years that lets me know, that some
friendships last forever, and this is a huge comfort when a another friendship
is dwindling. well it's a huge comfort, at all times. I find that a
couple real good friends is all I really need. Just my 5
cents. Many Blessings,
Michelle