“What About Socialization?”

That’s a question I hear pretty often when I tell people we homeschool. How are we going to “socialize” our kids? That’s an understandable question because of the stigma that is still attributed to homeschooling. I wrote a little bit about that stigma and how I no longer worry about it here.

Here’s one thing someone asked that rubbed me all wrong, “How are they going to learn to deal with the hard issues in life if they don’t go to school and experience it?”

“What the what!? Send my kids to school to learn to deal with the harshness of life? Isn’t life hard enough? Don’t they have enough time in this life to learn all about it without having to send them to school to learn about it? Is this what “socialization” is?” These were the questions that flew through my mind while I sat staring this person down, trying to come up with a socially acceptable answer.

I think what he was getting at was, how am I going to teach my kids to get along with mean kids if they don’t go to school? My answer is simple. I don’t keep my kids in a bubble. They deal with mean kids at church, at family get-togethers, rodeos, and any kind of social event we go to. Even if you don’t get out much, siblings can be the meanest of mean kids. Anyone who has one knows that.

What is Socialization?

Websters Dictionary defines socialize as to make fit for living and getting along in a group;to make social.

To be social is having to do with human beings as they live together in a group or groups or liking to be with others.

The question is, to be socialized, does a child have to go to school? Does a child have to leave their parents for 7-8 hours a day, spend their time in a class full of other children their own age, and perform the same as said children? Is that what socializes a child? Getting along with kids their own age?

Or does socializing a child mean taking the child out in the “real world” and teaching them to look someone in the eye to have a conversation with them, whether it’s with the little, old man in Wal-Mart who misses his kids and grandkids or the baby at the park who just babbles and coos?

This Is My Problem With School Socialization

I went to public school, I should have been socialized, right? I wasn’t. I didn’t know how to have a conversation with someone who wasn’t my own age. I didn’t know about handshakes and asking how someone was doing or how their day was going until I got out in the “real world” and learned it. I still struggle, honestly. Maybe I’m just weird. Who knows?

Socialization isn’t just getting along with our peers. I

t’s getting along with society. That little, old man at Wal-Mart, the baby at the park, kids at church, cousins and siblings. It’s knowing how to get along and interact with the people around us and if your child can do that, mama, your doing a great job!

So what do you think? Do you think kids need to be in school around their peers to be socialized? Or do you think getting out and about can do just as much, if not more? Comment below. I want to hear your thoughts!