Sorry for my lack of posts these past few days- I’ve been reading all those wonderful books I bought and watching the entire “Homestead Blessings” DVD series we bought. I’ve also been trying to remember every book I’ve read since starting high school. So far, I have 793, but I know I’m forgetting many, many more. 
Now, onto the post:
“Do you feel like your parents are making you do this because you are immature- or can’t make decisions?”
Not at all! A mature person understands that any rules or boundaries are a blessing. Nuff said. They let me bring a matter to them and they respond with their input, often giving me fresh insights I never considered. They leave the ultimate decision up to me, and it’s not very often I realize my parents way was not in line God’s.
“How can you say you like living at home?”
A woman at church told me that by doing online college, I would miss out on dorm living. She implied it was vital to my success. She also implied that she felt sorry for me because I would spend at least four years living at home.
The question to ask is not “How can you like living at home?” But rather, “Is living away from home the best thing for me?”
If you haven’t already noticed, I’m using the Colombo Question method. The method is used by Mr. Scott Klusendorf, the man who demolished the former ACLU chairwoman Nadine Strossen in debate.
Ask questions like “What do you mean by that?” “How did you come to that conclusion?” and “Why do you think that way?” Asking great questions keeps you ahead, and leaves a smaller burden for proof. I’ve never taken a debate class, because Klusendorf was all I needed.
“But don’t you want to learn life skills?”
Define life skills? Is it an ability to relate to others well- outside of your own home? Is it the undertaking of forsaking those who raised you for cold unknown places that seek to destroy your values? Really? What is a life skill? If learning a life skill means that I have to trade in my values and morals and convictions, then let me be. I’d rather have no life skills at all than no morals at all.
Life skills, to me are not only learning, but mastering homemaking, child-rearing (babysitting is awesome practice), and inter-personal communication. I believe taking girls away from home for several years destroys even the best of family relationships. When you have no protection of family near, you are weak. College campuses are where teachers promote complete independence, indoctrinate the pupils by saying ”Think for yourself, don’t let anyone tell you what to think!” (my, how confusing!) They scramble the air waves and make war on the family. Going away from home to attend college is why America is losing family. Some colleges are pretty good, I’ve heard, but I’m not one to gamble away my morals.
Even the “apartment” situation is bad. See the word apart in there?!! Living on your own means no man to guard you, predators strike easily, stealing not only material valuables, but physical value that you are trying to guard. “It will never happen to me…” I know how that goes. It happened to someone I’m related to. For a young woman to say she wants to stay pure and is trying her best to do so cannot be living from out under her dad’s protection.
Life skills are important if correctly defined!
“You won’t know what’s new in technology and in the culture if you’re not around it.”
Yes, and I won’t know the fire’s hot unless I stand in it. And that bars are bad places if I’ve never drank. And that the ocean is there if I haven’t seen it. I won’t know anything about anything unless I do something with it or in it. While it’s true that knowledge and wisdom come with experience, a lot of technology out there is put to bad use.
By staying at home, you send the message you want to be sheltered. There’s no way around it: people will think you behind the times. Recently, I battled a horrible cough for three weeks, and had to sit out of choir practice on Sunday night. So, I brought along my laptop and started working on bible study lesson PowerPoints, some blog posts, and my book. After practice was done, several people came over and asked me “So, you have a computer?” “Your parents let you online?” “You’re allowed to have a computer?” “Do you have a main one at home? Or did you have to get this as a necessary evil?” On and on they went.
There’s nothing wrong with acting- BEING plain, and people come to associate my family and I with weird, simple living. We buy our groceries for $50-100 a week, we like wear skirts on days other than Sunday (gasp! 
), and we homeschool. Whenever we act otherwise (suchas athletic, popular, up-to-date, etc), people see it as breaking our personal dogma. One man found I was going to attend our homeschool group’s formal dance and said he was surprised I was allowed to go. (Note: the music is not “that type”; I’m not going to dance with boys; and I will be wearing a modest dress).
The “technology” or “modern” question will probably come to you, too. Remember, it’s not the technology or being modern that’s sin: it’s the abuse and misuse of technology. Having a cell phone to keep up with people you’ve witnessed to is not wrong. It’s the addiction to texting friends useless messages that is the misuse. (I’ve sent a grand total of twenty-seven texts in my whole life). People who think you’re different will treat you differently than others. They have respect, and they will always be shocked when you do things differently. They think of you highly, even if they seem to belittle you. They see you have higher standards and expect you to be very strange all the time. Perhaps they want what you have without the effort.
Follow your convictions in technology and things “modern”, not your heart and certainly not what others say.
“What?! You are graduating/graduated?”
When you spend so much time around your family, especially mom, people assume you’re still in school. Especially if you are the youngest or eldest (people in the middle seem to get mixed up enough already…) Especially when you have a big family, which makes the situation weirder to others. Especially if you’re like me, who is always annoyed by the “guess the age of this girl” game: I almost always get “You’re 14, right?” The more annoyed I get, the more the devil makes notice and does it again. And again. And again and again and again. My pastor was surprised when I handed him the form to rent the church hall for my graduation open house- coming this spring. He thought I had several years to go yet. A teacher in a co-op thought I was a sophomore. It gets discouraging. Women who taught me in Sunday school only a few years ago had the case of jaw-drop-itis.
Just because you still live at home doesn’t mean you’re still homeschooled.
Fact is; people are going to think you are a lot younger than you really are.
There’s no way to answer them to make them think of you as older. You can only answer maturely, honestly, and humbly.
People look on the outward. Success is redefined as an outward trait.
Let me tell you a story…
Successful Woman??
There is a 20something girl in my church who never wears the same thing twice. Sunday service, Sunday evening, Wednesday night- all new shoes, all new outfit, new purse, new hairstyle. She recently got a job, which made people coo over her and her family: “She’s got a job? Oh! She’s all grown up!” It’s sickening, I know. This girl has a problem: she giggles at most anything you say to her- and she is called “cute adult” quite often. yet, she lacks in reserve by speaking up in church discussions, (women are to keep silent in the church- yet our pastor thinks they should have an equal say). She will not look an adult in the eye- neither will her sister. She looks away when I look her in the eye. So she brings her cell phone, and texts. And texts. And texts. People talk of her cute status updates on Facebook and Myspace, and laugh off how she didn’t know what to say to an officer when she was pulled over for speeding. The story has circulated that she called a neighbor to help beat down a robber in the middle of the night- only to discover the robber was her new chair by the window.
Just last month, an elderly lady told me I should be me light-hearted in my faith and not take life so seriously. “Why aren’t you more like Caroline?” She laughed. “You could learn from her.”
Would Jesus take life so seriously? What do you think? And what is your version of success? You don’t need to preach- just write about what you value and think is important in life. Make a list, if you’d like. (I don’t hate long comments 
) That’s the end of the Stay-at-Home-Daughter for awhile.
There was one donated Barbie doll, and I think every girl in the room had her eye on it.
