On Saturday night, sadly, I was in New Jersey. While there, I met a mother of ten who travels with her husband and kids in a bus. One Sunday, she told me, they sang in a church and made more in tips than the husband had been making at his job. Now they sing at churches, radio stations, and basically anywhere they can.
The thing that stood out most about them, though (to me, at least), was that Mom is homeschooling the eight school-age kids. You'd think having ten kids wasn't a monumental task in itself. Mom also plays guitar in the band. Dad drives the bus, and walks around dressed like Colonel Parker. Or maybe Colonel Sanders.
I have a lot of respect for people who take on the task of homeschooling their kids. I have only one kid, and I don't think I'm up to it. In fact, when my daughter wanted to study the violin, I paid a teacher rather teach her myself. Perhaps it runs in the family--when a light fixture burned out in my grandparents' home, my grandfather, an electrician, famously instructed my grandmother, "Call an electrician."
My kid loves school. She would kill me, I'm sure, if I ever attempted to homeschool her. She's very social and thrives on interaction with her peers. These kids, however, have playmates all over the bus they call home. They seemed very happy to me.
That mom is my new hero. I couldn't do what she does in a million years.
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