This page is about the sorts of trade-offs parents make to provide for their children in ways they don't "have to." Unschooling parents give up some "rights" they have so that their children can share in decision-making, and so they aren't penned in by so many rules and traditions. Jen Keefe wrote, "I started out thinking I deserved a lot of things because I had "sacrificed" my career/life/etc. to be a stay at home parent..."
[SPOILER: She changed her mind. You can read more at "I deserve..."
Unschooling parents can sacrifice their right to "deserve" a return for their sacrifices.
Incremental changeChange takes time. Don't send the bill. Don't "be nice" for two months and then say "I was nice and you weren't any nicer to me!" Be nice because being nice is better than not being nice. Do it for yourself and your children.
I sacrifice my peace to allow my boys to drive away in vehicles powerful enough to kill them and others.My husband sacrifices money and "power" to let them use two of his cars as though they were theirs.
It's a loving sacrifice, but it's a choice we've made. If it's not our choice, it's not really a sacrifice. Without choice, we would've been just trod upon, and robbed, and abused.
The notion of valuing generosity or inconvenience or sharing or compromise in terms of something spiritual is
1) beyond some people's understanding
2) embarrassing to many
3) "not in the Bible" (pick your religion, but probably not on the short list of what one "has" to do)Sandra
We know other families who encouraged the boys to stall before learning to drive, or required them to pay for their own liability insurance. We figured learning to drive, in New Mexico (and in many places) is helpful to the family, and is a part of growing up and being independent. We didn't "have to," but it was an unschooling decision—the cost of them learning to drive when they wanted to.
Blanket statements about sacrifice being wrong tend to lead toward selfishness on the part of the parent.Danielle Conger agreed with me, and wrote:Whether new unschoolers are extreme is unlikely. Whether they are easily confused is just about guaranteed. We're asking people to come into water they never knew existed.
If someone believes that a mom should have several hours to herself each day, she will need to sacrifice (give up) that idea. If she thinks kids should take care of themselves and she doesn't have to do a thousand things for them, she will need to sacrifice that notion.
Only by giving up some fond fantasies does the generous giving phase come. For someone to do housework willingly and openly, she has to lose the fantasy of assigning chores and others happily doing her bidding.
For many, *that* is the great sacrifice.
Thinking "I wanted to be a person, but I threw it all by the wayside to exist as life support for you and now you didn't do what I dreamed you would do"--that's more than sacrifice. That's a mire of codependency. First, to get to the kinds of relationships being advocated here, a mom needs to let go of many things, two of which are the image of the person she wanted to be separate from her children, as though she didn't have children at all, and then get rid of the vision of her children as ideal mother-worshipping accessories.
For some that is a sacrifice.
Sandra
A gracious and generous "sacrifice" for someone else is a good thing in my mind. It makes the world go round more pleasantly and creates an economy of care that combats some of the selfishness inherent in the individual, pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps mentality of capitalism.Sandra Dodd:Perhaps the word sacrifice can be replaced by the notion of shifting one's perspective to see the world from another's (one's child's, for instance) point of view that enables a more generous, less resentful form of "sacrifice" to occur—empathy driven sacrifice. But, the much-maligned notion of sacrifice as a bad thing is a remnant of the Victorian version of the all sacrificing Angel of the House, a reactive remnant of first-wave feminism, as I see it anyway. The usefulness of its critique was short-lived and the unseen ramifications far-reaching, imo.
Danielle
[some skipped over, and...]Doing something because everyone else does is easy and you can sustain a life on it, but it's not a mindful place to be. Doing something because a small inspiring subgroup said to do it can be exhilarating, but if you don't truly understand why, your "belief" will only last as long as their pep rally lasts.
Another sacrifice to make, for unschooling to work well, is the ease of just borrowing a philosophy as a part of temporary friendships. It has to be deep and individual. You might have to sacrifice some of what you lifted from the Women's Movement AND some of what you inherited from your family if you want to have a relationship with your children that's bigger and better than their visions were.
Sandra
[A] person who feels they "have to" do these things to meet their goals could quite easily find themselves complaining about it along the way—"I can't believe I have to fight another match (grumble, grumble)" or "I'm taking so many hours this semester that I'm always tired!" and expecting people to congratulate me for getting through the semester. It can lead to feeling that you have had to sacrifice to meet your goals.But when I keep the fact that it is my choice to continue with the actions to meet my goals front and center in my mind, I also continually reaffirm that this is my goal to achieve. That though I may not find certain actions "enjoyable", I choose to participate in them to achieve my goals. Then I'm not as likely to be complaining to those around me about how I "have to" do this and that just because I want the end result. That I have not made any sacrifices, I have made choices. And with that attitude, I'm a lot nicer to be around. 🙂
Pam Laricchia
(below the peacock, at Thinking About "Have To")
