What is success?

A few days ago a lady on one of the homeschooling groups I am on said that her husband would only support her homeschooling her son if she could name 3 successful people who had been home schooled.

I was so angered by that! I thought, seriously? That is what it will take for him to support you in your decision? Success? There were a slew of people who chimed in saying, go to this site, go to that site, here is a list, look here, give him this. And all of those just angered me more! Until, I ready this post. I thought that this post was the best one out there. And though the lady who wrote this didn't get all the support from the group that she should have, I am here to support her 100% in her views and commend her for speaking up!

"Wow! I always Find these requests to be difficult. I was Home schooled. I consider myself to be successful. Though I guess there are some that would consider me normal/average. However I chose after attending Some College not to continue as I felt it was not helping me in reaching my Goals. I know of other Homeschoolers who are Craftspeople, Artisans and Artists who either didn't attend or finish College. Are they Not Successful????? I also Know folks who did college, got degrees, make a very good income and hate their jobs and are not happy. Are they Successful????

As a Stay at Home Homeschooling Mom taking care of my Family and Home, I am Probably not who or what you are looking for as a "Homeschooling Role Model". However I pay my Taxes, Volunteer in my Community, and have never been Arrested. I Love my Life! I am Happy with Who I am. And yesterday I heard from My Sons the best thing that I could. They were happy and were thinking that if they ever had Kids that they would love to Homeschool them as well. That it was sad the experiences and freedom that they were having growing up with couldn't be experienced by every Kid, especially Public Schoolers.

I am a successful Homeschooling Mom. I was Homeschooled. I am nothing special. But I am Happy. Not everyone grows up to be a Doctor, or a lawyer, or a Scientist, mathematician, or an Author. However there are those that do and do so without College. There are a lot of different Paths to happiness and lively hood. I think that Homeschooling in all of its many forms, for many People, helps them Find their way better than some of the more Traditional options.

Wondering exactly what success is..
ladystyx "

I absolutely agree! A couple of years ago my husband was making quite a bit of money in a very good job. And that gave us quite a few luxuries. We bought things we didn't need, had a huge house and were very frivolous. As a mother I spent a lot of time spending money on my kids, not spending time with my kids.

Then my husband lost that very good job and we had to take a hard look at ourselves, our finances and where we were in life. To the outside world we were "successful". But to us, we were failing. We moved to some farm land and decided to change our lifestyle. We changed our view of success as well. No longer do we see monetary wealth as a status of success. Now success to me is measured in the love my children feel, the comfort of family, nourishing foods, happy times and love of the Lord. And as a homeschooler I measure success differently now as well. No longer is getting everything 100% correct as important and successful as realizing why we got something wrong and learning from it.

I think she is right on in her thinking and defining of success. Look at how many "successful" people have been arrested, addicted to drugs or alcohol, go from marriage to marriage, have children out of wedlock, etc. Is that really how we define success today? Lots of money? If it is, it shouldn't be.

To read her full blog post on this feel free to go to her blog:
http://nobleladystyx.blogspot.com