As a homeschooler, I can struggle with pride.

I can become so puffed up about the skills that my sons have developed under my watchful eye. It’s an easy challenge.

We’re right there guiding them from crawling, to walking, to reading, and eventually to solving quadratic equations.

We even require that they keep their art supplies neat.

But, honestly…

Sometimes I miss the mark entirely.

Yes, I’m actively teaching my kids to cook.
Sure, I’ve made sure my older sons never text and drive and even created a game for teens.
Absolutely, my kids love to read as much as they love mud right before church.

I’m guessing I’m not alone in my quest to teach kids life skills while homeschooling.

I believe parent homeschool their kids. Some of us also include math, English, history, and science in our teaching. We teach them to wash their face, brush their teeth, and eys, fold laundry.

Sometimes we even become the world’s greatest parent of the hour by creating games to make chore FUN.

We work really hard, don’t we?

Homeschool moms spend a lot of time cooking, cleaning, and teaching. Many of our lesson plans are filled with math activities, read-alouds, and reminders about ballet.

But most of us fail to have our kids master a critical life skill.

I know I’m Not alone!

Are you so tickled that your kindergartener can write her name, that you forget to teach her to tie her shoes?
Are you so focused on your son’s math problems that you neglect to encourage him to say please and thank you, or better yet,”Help!”
Do you sometimes wonder if they will ever learn to write an essay using proper grammar because you lose sleep at night worrying if you should have used an apostrophe in that last email? (Psshhh. Not me. I sleep like a dead horse at night)

I can get distracted by grades, curriculum, and progress too.

Laundry can consume all of our free time. Do your kids see an empty laundry hamper as a challenge to create dirty laundry in record time?

I don’t think my hamper has stayed empty for longer than 15.3 second this year.

The school year clicks on.

Boys are solving equations, writing resumes and reading complex stories.

Just about the time I start to feel like I’m rocking this homeschooling thing… I see it.

Not the coolest way to hang a towel, but something so subtle… so simple…

So small, so basic, so obvious hits me in the forehead like a nerf dart shot by a guilty husband. (Yes, my husband delights in using me as target practice when wielding a nerf weapon).

But this.

This makes me feel like a loser, a lousy parent and completely drives me crazy.

Like, lose a gasket, crazy.