Not Back To School Picnic!

Another year, not back to school! Another celebration at the park with a great group of homeschooling families. Three kids covered in peach juice sticky glory and sand, pine sap in their hair, grinning ear to ear. Queen Lily and Super Hero Holly and Zippy Zap (Isaac) had the best day ever and I heard all about it in detail, with a small break at Grampa and Nana's, until bedtime.

Me? These social gatherings take a lot out of me. I am not someone that moves easily in social situations without a lot of hard work and paying attention to social cues, and that is exhausting. Sometimes I space out in the middle of a conversation or get distracted, which is very rude and not intentional, so I have to work very hard to stay focused and on task.

Yet, I do this to teach my children that it is good to be around people and enjoy the social interaction. My children are naturals, I actually have learned a lot from them. Many of you, maybe even the moms I met today, probably have no idea how difficult the gatherings are for me. I am an introvert. I am at my best completely alone, at a picnic bench at my farm, with the stars and the crickets as company. That is what recharges me. That is where I am centered.

These past few years though, I am getting better at being around people. I am actually seeking out people to get to know. I am even enjoying it. The last 3 months I have met so many amazing people, all who have cheered me on, all who have stories to share too. That got me thinking about blogging and what role it has historically, what role all of this social media has. I have a lot of thoughts on that I am still working out, but for framing this, the social aspect of facebook and twitter has allowed a lot of the pressure and anxiety to be worked out for me. I know who will be there at an event, mostly, I can get familiar with the location, and I get to know people through their pages and groups we are in before hand so there is not that scary factor of not knowing who I am talking to. It is mostly public who is friends with who and who is not, so most of the time I can avoid being drawn into drama that I am not a part of if I pay attention.

People also know where I stand on issues, so there are very few conversations that turn awkward which is a huge blessing. Working on the relationship part, understanding different perspectives, is a lot easier when that part is out of the way. No one likes to invest in a conversation where one of the people drops a huge unexpected poo bomb of awkward political belief one way or another, social media allows us to get to know each other and filter for that ahead of time. Oh, trust me, it still happens, but it is certainly less frequent. Let me tell you how valuable this is in the homeschooling community. Not that people with polarising beliefs don't end up friends, they do, and that can be a very rewarding friendship, but now I know generally what topics to avoid in discussion and what jokes not to make. This alone has helped me so much be able to just talk to folks. That alone is so taken for granted, because just small talk comes so naturally to most people.

So today was a smashing success, not just for my lively and bright children, but for their painfully un-social quirky nerd of a mother.