Torn...

Do you ever feel torn by what you feel is right, and the way society is? I mean, I am not a homeschooling mama, although totally see the pros to being one. The things my kids learn in school, the materialistic things all the other kids get, the foods other kids eat, and the fact that I miss them like crazy TOTALLY make me want to home school....but I do see the pros in going to school also. I would love to live on an island with others who want to raise their kids the same as I would like mine raised. I want them to go to school, to have great social skills, as I feel in this world it is one of the most important things to have...I like them to do all the fun things they do at school, parties, gym, music, art, games. But most of all I want them to know that this huge world does not revolve around them, like it does at home. I think if they don't learn this at an early age, it just gets more difficult for them. I know a few home school mama's who's kids are in public schools now, once they noticed their oldest struggling socially...not feeling like they fit in with the norm. I want to protect my children from the negatives of a public school, but want them to enjoy and benefit from the positives...We live in a very good neighborhood with good schools, but my kids still want to know why so and so gets this and that, why so and so gets all junk food in their lunch, not to mention the not so nice words they learn. But they learn also, that life is not fair, that there will always be kids with more, and kids with less. BUT I do feel we have to at least provide half of what the "Joneses" family has in order for my kids to not be total "dorks" or outcasts....and I struggle between what I believe is right and what to "give in" to for the soul reason of them fitting in this society. I think kids are being raised TOTALLY wrong. I don't want to raise my kids this way, but if this is the world they have to grow up in...I want them to fit in, I don't want them to be outcasts. I stress being themselves, that everyone is different, that they must stand strong in what they believe, and not let society influence them. But in reality...they have to grow up in this world. I am not considering home schooling, at this point, especially since my oldest is a 7th grader, and well, you know that game "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?"...well, I'm not. My kids also do love school. But I just struggle with the way kids are being raised and the way I want to raise mine. More on this later...