Protecting your own privacy

As you very well know, privacy can be very hard to come by when you homeschool. It’s hard enough with kids around anyway, but when they don’t go to school for six to eight hours a day you definitely have to sneak in time to be alone, spend with your partner or even talk on the phone privately. Are kids worth it? Heck yeah! But you still need to protect your own privacy, too.

When I try to talk on the phone, I normally hide out in the bathroom or my bedroom. Wood Sprite still seeks me out and doesn’t want to let me talk, but you have to use some boundaries here. I’ve started to lock the door, which I hate doing, but I just wanted to see how she would react. The first time, she kept banging on the door, wanting to be with me—I’m telling you, it would be so much better if she could have a sibling to hang out with!—but the second time, she just said, “OK,” and went back to her drawings in the living room.

My husband and I have also learned to lock the door at night when we want some alone time. If there is an emergency, I can easily turn it to unlock in seconds. I used to abhor this idea; I wouldn’t even close the door when we were alone. Now that Wood Sprite is older, wiser, and sleeps less, I abhor the idea of leaving the door open even worse!

How do you maintain your boundaries and privacy as a homeschooling parent?

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia