More On Driving Yourself Crazy…

Um. We don’t really need to hear more about driving ourselves crazy, we already spend all day with our kids?!

Last week I wrote about one (of several!) ways you can drive yourself crazy as a homeschooler – by comparing yourself to other homeschooling families. Whether you homeschool or not, it’s probably a trap you’ve also fallen into. But what do you do about it? Obviously, the answer to that will be different for everyone, but I thought I’d share what sometimes works for me.

Focus on Yourself. Whenever a conversation or something I’ve read has tempted me to compare myself to others, I’ve found that taking time to really focus on my own family helps. Instead of seeing everything that other families have and do I try and take inventory of everything my own family has accomplished. I continuously struggle with a “grass is greener” attitude and find that I need to periodically take the time to focus on the many gifts that surround me in order to combat this.

Do More. Comparing myself to other homeschoolers sometimes leaves me with a feeling that I need to be doing more. In reality, this may or may not be true. But I try and take the opportunity to really look at where we are in our own homeschooling journey. It helps me to look back at what we have accomplished – it’s always more than I realize! It also helps me to look forward toward the goals we have for our homeschooling. After spending some time (a few days? weeks?) really focusing on our work without too many outside distractions, I always feel rejuvenated. I’m far less tempted to compare myself to other homeschoolers when I’m confident that our own schooling is on the right track.

These are a couple of ways that I’ve been moderately successful in dealing with comparing myself to others. I say “moderately successful” because it’s not something that I think can be completely avoided. I’ve also come to realize that it’s not necessarily a bad thing to look at how you compare to others. It forces me to take stock of our own homeschooling and see what things we’re doing well and what things we can improve. I think the key is to try and learn what we can from other homeschooling families, rather than letting feelings of doubt and insecurity drive us crazy.

After all, we already spend all day with our kids. There are plenty of OTHER things to drive us crazy.

What are some ways that you deal with comparing yourself to other homeschoolers? Or are you just a far more confident person than I am?

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I hope your week is off to a great start!

~ Dori