It’s one of those times when my anxiety is on hyperdrive. I’m doing everything wrong, right? Every interaction I have with people seems to be fraught.
One problem is that I’m struggling with how much control and influence and power I have. There are times and places when I don’t agree with how something is being handled and I shut up because there’s nothing I can do. Then there are times and places where I feel like I am a bad person if I shut up because someone is being harmed and if I ignore that… I’m part of the problem.
I’m part of the problem. If I see people being harmed by others in their life and I do nothing… I’m saying I basically agree.
What if I don’t agree that something is being handled right?
Good luck with those feelings.
Because I don’t get to decide. And I’m afraid that by talking about what I see I am going to become the problem and then I won’t be able to help in any way because I was stupid enough to talk about the problem.
Not everyone can do everything. We all have limits. We all have things we can’t do. I can’t teach fussy, fiddly little activities that involve a high amount of fine motor control. Even if I can do it (under protest) I can’t teach it because I get frustrated and angry and explosive. So I outsource that shit. I can’t teach everything. My kids take classes because I can’t teach everything. I am not that cool. That’s why as they get older they will spend more and more time away from me. Because they will have mostly learned what I have to teach.
I don’t think there is one Twue Way that parenting or schooling should happen. Some people like home schooling and it works well for their family. Some people need to have their kids in school. Some people need to have their kids in school and after school care every day for any one of millions of potential reasons.
None of these choices are wrong if they work well for the child and the family. It’s when the solution is clearly not working for either the parent or the child that you need to look at making changes.
It is easy for me to sit on my high horse and see the problems in other peoples systems. I’m afraid I am failing to see the problems in mine. I was honestly hoping for more criticism from Stanford because other than “Do more academics” which was the plan anyway and which we have already caught up on…. What do I change now?
I have no feedback to help direct me. Just… do something. What you are doing seems to work ok.
THAT’S NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Everyone fucks up. Everyone has things they don’t do well and things they do very well. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?!
I shout more than I should. But professional evaluators tell me I don’t shout as much as other people and it isn’t that big of a deal.
So what does should mean anyway?
I don’t know I don’t know I don’t know I don’t know.
So anxious. So worried that I’m going to hurt everyone and wreck their lives and make it so they are not ok later.
This is eating me alive. It has been for a couple of days now? Turbo anxiety. How am I hurting everyone?
I want to run away. I want to disappear. I want to go somewhere that no one knows me. (Good luck, motherfucker. Name a continent (other than Antarctica) and I will name countries I need to avoid if I want to make sure I don’t see anyone I know. I run into people I know most times I travel internationally. I know too many fucking people.)
I love you all. It’s just hard to run away from you.
I want to run away from my own self perception. Because I’m afraid I’m doing everything wrong. I’m afraid I’m hurting people. I’m afraid I’m a giant let down. I’m afraid that by trying to help I am going to make things worse. I’m afraid that by trying to help I am going to be hated so much that hating me becomes the problem instead of fixing the problem.
Fuck.
I think I’m going to take a week or so off from reaching out. I feel like I am hurting people by existing. Maybe if I hide in my house and keep my crazy to myself that will feel less true. Don’t interfere with other peoples lives. Even if there are problems.
It isn’t my place.
“And I’m afraid that by talking about what I see I am going to become the problem and then I won’t be able to help in any way because I was stupid enough to talk about the problem.”
Ooohhh I get this. I have been in that position so many times and lost so many friends because of it. In relatively recent history I tried to call out the racism and ableism I saw in my grad school department, and later on I called out a group of blackmailing gossipers in my previous local kink scene. These things did not go over well, they did not have the results I had hoped for, and I even hurt people I was trying to help but by god I couldn’t sit back and say nothing.
I’m thinking about your questions of ‘what am I doing wrong/what more can I be doing’, and I don’t know if those are rhetorical questions, but from my perspective you are doing such an amazing job raising your kids. Something that would be amazing but likely a terrible idea (because of limited spoons, limited time, and readers being terrible) would be a parenting blog/book review blog where you shared your insights and deep knowledge of child development. It is so not my area of expertise and maybe these things already exist, but I haven’t seen anyone with a perspective quite like yours, who can combine knowledge of development for the average child, with knowledge of different learning styles and genders and class issues and intergenerational trauma and multiple perspectives on world history and so on. When I think about the possibility of having or adopting a kid myself, I wish I could shadow you somehow. I think you could be an amazing teacher for other homeschooling parents or a consultant for new teachers. But I don’t have a clue how any of that is possible without harming yourself so it may be a moot point.