Day 11 of 30 Days Countdown to South America and Around the World
I left a career to stay home with my kids when they were babies. I would be lying if I say I loved every minute of my time at home. There were days when I felt a sense of loss and regret because my career and business were on hold. On several occasions I put my frustrations on my kids and became quite demanding and expected great performances in every area of their life...which included school, piano, sports and anything.
I was a product of a well rounded education. Leaving work I became unemployable at home. Once, I answered an ad for 'work at home stuffing envelops'."Needless to say it was a scam. My education was not marketable in the 'work at home category.'
In the last six years I switched my parenting style and have radically pursued the opposite direction in the way they were being educated and learned. I also pursued skills that make me marketable in the 'work at home category'. In fact you can drop me in a remote island with Internet and I should be fine with work. Because I realized I can't have my kids particularly my daughter feeling stuck one day and unable to work at home, she too has a portable business at age 17. As today's blog post title suggested, "What is school for and why I hired a business coach instead of sending my 17 year old to college!", we hired a business coach.
As I thought about this topic, Seth Godin's talk on Stop Stealing Dreams and his eBook came to mind. You've got to watch this video because it may change the way you raise your children and stop the sleepless nights thinking about high cost of education. This is also one of the reasons why we sold almost everything, are embracing a simple lifestyle and are taking our kids to travel with us for 18 months.
Here is the video from YouTube by Seth Godin:
To download his free eBook Stop Stealing Dreams (What is school for?) go to his website and here is the link: Seth Godin.
Caution: Some schools are still relevant and are still training highly skilled professionals. Do your homework on this matter as I am doing so too.
Here are some articles I wrote over two years ago:
As a teacher, I whole-heartedly agree with that video! Will be reading your articles soon! 🙂
Thanks Joy. Lots of golden nuggets in that video. Please share.