It takes a lot of courage to try to repair a relationship. Congrats on doing that. I hope it goes well between you (all) and that rifts are healed.

It sounds trite, but where there's life, there's hope.

Hmm. Now I'm wondering how things would be if my father were still alive. There's a lesson in there somewhere, I think.

@CreationEdge Lol! And I'm happy to share them!

I wish I could undo them, start again, but really, my kids are great kids.

@CreationEdge Ugh, I can relate! I went to a Catholic school, and we had a few nuns who should not have been teachers, lol!

There are at least a few homeschoolers here, so feel free to ask stuff. :-)

I can believe that. Gifted students (there are a lot of studies out there) have traditionally not been handled particularly well, let alone gifted kids with behavior disorders.

My wife and I plan on homeschooling as well. I never considered it before, not because I was against it or anything. It just never came to mind. My wife and her 4 sisters were all homeschooled and they all have college degrees with A averages (2 were full scholarships), and they're all socially adept, and they're all attractive :-D.

Public school is such a gamble nowadays. Maybe your kid will handle the nonstop peer pressure just fine, or maybe they'll buckle under it. Maybe they'll get a good teacher, or maybe they'll get a terrible one. Maybe they'll handle being bullied just fine and maybe they won't. At least with homeschooling I know what's going on instead of just assuming everything is fine while the government raises my kid.

And public school doesn't necessarily socially prepare a kid for the real world. In the real world, a person interacts with people of all ages. In public school, you're in a class with a bunch of kids your age and you just spend time with your clique.

</rant>

@LCIII This! This is so true. Homeschooled kids have playmates of both sexes and a wider range of ages (families' kids playing together). One year, we had to put out kids in school because we were both working and we were building a house, and the builder would interrupt school almost every day, and I was often called to go to the site.

The amazing thing is that at our first PTA meeting, the teachers stated their concern with my sons because they played with girls at recess, too unlike the other boys. And my daughters were considered forward because they played with boys. Unbelievable! And all of them were accustomed to playing with older and younger kids as well.

</my rant>

@Joe - I can totally understand what you're describing. My kids (the only people who really know my husband as well as I do) love their dad, but they also claim he's clueless - their word - and they are right to some extent. It certainly doesn't mean he doesn't feel his own emotions; he laughs, cries, get's upset, etc. like everyone else. But unless he's paying particular attention, he often doesn't key in on the feelings of others. This has worked to his advantage and also to his disadvantage.

The studies I read today also debated the assumption that females have more empathy than males, at least in children. But some investigators also found that empathy, not sympathy, was partly genetic.