Debbie Regan wrote, of the idea of a child "being behind" for leaving school and unschooling:

"Falling behind" - What happens when you're not keeping up with the scramble to get to the finish line before the stragglers arrive and they're all out of ... jobs, options, good lives?

In the non-school world, "falling behind" relates to races. Is your daughter's life a race? Is yours? Am I falling behind as an adult, missing out on all the cool experiences, because I'm not beating other people to them? The "race" concept doesn't fit happy lives out of school. Doing what interests us, what we're drawn to, is more relevant. And that's what unschoolers do.

While schooly people are focussing on that fictional finish line, the real world is still humming along. People are walking around and past the fretting throng, living interesting lives, doing cool things, being productive, enjoying life.

Question #8 on that list of questions How to Raise a Respected Child Multiple Intelligences (Different ways people are "smart")

from a site that no longer exists, but this part is good: Advice to the Parents of New Homeschoolers... (by a then-homeschooled teen named Christy)