Dom and I are firmly introverts. Peggy is also an introvert. How, then, did we produce Aggie who is most definitely an extrovert?!
Don’t get me wrong; we like spending time with friends and family and meeting new people BUT we always like to retreat back into our own world pretty quickly. We could happily go for days at a time without leaving the house or having contact with others. Covid lockdown was most definitely not a challenge for us in this respect! Us adults have always been like that. Peggy has always had a cut off point of being with others and is happy in her own company. Aggie, on the other hand, is a totally different story. She needs social interaction and lots of it. Every. Single. Day. It’s something we’ve always found difficult, right back from when she was in nursery.
Now it’s become something we have to consciously deal with and respond to. Being with other children every day was one of the reasons she considered going to high school so we know that not having this is the downside of home education for her. We try our hardest for Aggie to see other children at some point pretty much every day, whether it be meet-ups with friends, home ed one-off sessions, time online with friends or her weekly sessions at gymnastics, swimming, brass band and hockey. It’s akin to having a dog that has to be walked outside every day!
Whilst she is at her various activities, she is with other children but of course the interactions are all heavily supervised and structured. So, although we’re ticking the box of her being with other children, she’s not freely interacting and socialising with them. And she doesn’t get to meet new people, which she particularly enjoys (I don’t understand this at all!).
We’ve therefore had to seek out extra opportunities for her. She currently goes to a home ed youth club once a week where she freely mixes with other teenagers and they do whatever they fancy (within reason, obviously). The club is organically growing so she’s getting to meet some new faces each week. In the past, she’s been to a home ed learning hub for an afternoon each week but sadly this has now moved too far away from us. She comes home super-charged and chatty from all of these sessions so they’re clearly what she needs. She’s most definitely cheerier the next day and has a spring in her step. She needs this interaction as much as she needs feeding!
All of this is really hard for us parents. Really, really hard. And it’s been hard for Peggy too sometimes as she’s more content just staying at home than being dragged around to entertain her sister. Now she’s older, however, she can be left at home if she really doesn’t want to go to something. She loves having peace whilst home alone!
Home education is not an easy option for extroverted children with introverted parents. But I’m determined to give Aggie what she needs. Mummy’s just got to get out of her comfy joggers and slippers and enter the big world and interact with more people. We’ve got to get Aggie out there meeting the people she needs to feel good and energised.
I don’t like doing it. I never will like doing it. Aggie knows that I don’t. But she needs it. And her needs come before mine.
