End Of An Era

Yesterday I was finally ready to give up on our home education group that I have been a member of for just over four years but the owner of for the past eighteen months. I handed the group over to another member who regularly organises events and craft activities for the children of the group.

It was a huge decision which was not reached lightly and I have to say that it is like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders and I can breathe in and out without feeling suffocated any longer for the first time in ages.

In our region of Tyne and Wear UK, there were two groups, the one I ran plus another one that was started almost two years after the original one began. In the time I have owned the group there has been nothing but trouble from the other camp who never seemed to get it right in terms of inclusion for everyone no matter what their financial status is or from what walk of life they came from. In our group we included everyone no matter what their social status, colour or creed.

All the back stabbing, bitching and general holier than though attitudes of some people plus the fact that since November attending ever event meant I was laid up in bed for almost two weeks with some sickly virus and on one occasion had to stay in hospital as well, all made for me feeling rather angry about being the owner of the group and I wanted out of the system of group mentality altogether.

This morning whilst clearing my bookmarks I see that the group has in fact been deleted. So it really is an end of an era as the group was just about to turn seven years old. I am not disappointed, I feel a little sorry for the handful of families who did not belong to any other online group or who may not now get support, but on the whole I think it is a good thing and our family will be able to be ourselves and be free which is after all the whole point of home educating in the first place for us. We like the being able to please ourselves lifestyle we have, for the kids to be able to mix well with their real friends, study what and when we like together, no time restraints. Plus all of this means that I will be able to focus more on my number six brain box of the family and hopefully have a stress free bug free pregnancy from now on until the baby is born at the end of June. 23 weeks 4 days and counting!