Reasons to NOT homeschool...?

I have been thinking lately about all of the responses that I get from strangers who find out that we homeschool our children. Many times when other parents hear that we homeschool, they say to me, "Oh, I wish I could do that, but..." They then proceed with reasons that they would not or could not homeschool. I am going to share with you some of the reasons that I have been told as to why parents say that they cannot homeschool their children. I will then share my feelings on that response. There are such a variety of reasons that I have heard, that I decided to do a series on it instead of one very long posting.

(You can find Part One of this series here.
 You can find Part Two of this series here.
 You can find Part Three of this series here.
 And you can find Part Four here.)

*  "I am NOT a teacher.  Teachers have special training.  I couldn't do what they do."  Who taught your child to walk?  Talk?  Feed himself/herself?  Who potty trained your child?  You have been teaching them already!  Teaching anything school subjects requires the same skills that you used to teach them all of those other things!  Repetition-"Say Ma Ma!  Da Da!"  You keep repeating it until they get it!  Phonics is taught the same way!  "Ooops, you fell down.  Let's try again."  Keep doing it until you get it right.  Math is taught the same way.  YOU know YOUR CHILD better than ANYONE!  Use it to your advantage and teach them in the way you know that they will learn.  I could talk for days on end about adding--using candy and coins and anything else I could get my hands on, and still my son might not get it.  But if I pick up his bag of play dinosaurs, he begins to perk up and listen.  Teachers in a public school setting simply cannot do this for all 20 children in the classroom.  That is why the skill level in any given grade is so varied...some "got it" and others did not...and the teachers simply did not have time to work with those who could not "get it," even if they tried. You know things about your child that the public school teacher will never know...and even if he/she does know it, she might not "get" it like a mother does.

*  Along those same lines, "My child has special needs.  The services offered by the school are best for him/her.  He/she needs those 'special teachers.'"  Again, you know your child better than anyone ever could.  There are a lot of good teachers.  A lot of good, "special needs" teachers that are gifted in their profession.  As gifted as they are, they still do not know your child like you know your child.  Your child will benefit more from being with you, and having your attention to his/her needs.