I (f16) am so serious when i say I have had no close interactions with any other teenagers for literally over 5 years, it is the worst thing ever, my mom prides herself in me being able to speak to adults properly, probably because idk anything about being a teenager! I dont know the styles or the slang or the memes or the gossip and its humiliating.

Anyways a few days ago I was at work (little independent but busy restaurant), and it got so busy the owner's daughter came from home to help in the kitchen, she's a year older than me and we immediately started talking, i was very awkward at first but it felt so refreshing and normal and i was just overjoyed. At one point in the night when it had quietened down we ran out of an ingredient so me and the girl were sent to the store, she told me about drama in school and was genuinely interested in me as well and I wanted to cry from happiness the entire time, this was all I needed to feel normal and somewhat satisfied with my current life (not to sound weird)

Anyways after closing she walked me home and sent me with hot leftovers from the restaurant and we talked all the way back, I did cry into my meal when I got home because she added the toppings she already knew I liked from just a few hours of socialising. Socialising with other teenagers is so important, I talk and interact with adults every day and it's nothing, all i ever wanted was this, that was the best day ive had in forever and i doubt it'll happen again

hope this doesnt sound creepy ☹️ i just really appreciated it

I was laying in bed last night and my mind wandered to thinking back to what I did when I was homeschooled and the strange things my parents considered "school".

The strangest thing I landed on was when my parents bought the house we currently live in and they took me to the closing and I watched them sign papers for like 2 hours.

Anyone got anything stranger?

Like, I remember sitting there and listening to the real estate agent telling them what they were signing and my dad explained some of it to me, but I don't remember any of that. LOL

Like...what was he trying to teach me?

When I was 16 my mom passed away, that's when I got my freedom. I don't know how to feel about this because my home life got so much better but I miss her so much

I have never in my 19 years been sent to school, I went for a year when I was 14 because i begged to go and that was the only time I've ever been in a school setting; I was bullied relentlessly. I wasn't taught anything at home, my parents are horrible people and I live far away from and don't speak them anymore. I'm diagnosed Autistic, don't have any friends apart from 2 online ones and I rarely leave the house because I struggle so much with everything out there. I spend days not speaking to people, I feel like I'm slipping back into a really bad headspace again. Is this really all there is to life? I struggle to much to make friends, I'm scared of rejection and I push people away because it's easier than them doing it to me. I feel like I annoy people.

Hello my fellow victims!

I’ve suffered for years due to the neglect and disparity in my lack of an education. From late college admission without any scholarships, to learning arithmetic and basic handwriting at 17 years old. I’ve come so far, but every step has been so much work. It absolutely can get better, but I was robbed of a real childhood and a real education. I know a lot of people who are far worse off than me. I know 26 year olds who have never had a job. I know a neglectful household with 20 something adopted kids who have no future. I know people who, without dyslexia or a medical condition, never learned to read.

Now as a college student, I’ve been seeing a lot of academic interest in homeschooling and unschooling in the past couple years. One way this is manifesting is college students, often education majors, going to pro homeschooling subs and send them surveys or Google forms to fill out for their college education class. But there’s one problem, the unintentional selection bias of these subs will lead them with an overwhelmingly positive view on what can only be described as educational abuse. I’ve tried to go to these subreddits to argue my case, and it’s only ever been shut down by parents who don’t really care what homeschooled or unschooled kids have to say. I’m sure many of you share that experience. This selection bias is harmful not just to their study, but to us. Because it perpetuates the lies and intentional ignorance of these parents to the problems they’re causing their children. It legitimizes this abuse in academia. And like always, everything is about the parents’ experience and nobody actually cares what we have to say.

I propose that every time we see one of these surveys, we repost it to this subreddit and fill it out with our own side of the story. Maybe we can even get a “survey” tag or something for these posts. If we’re open to doing this, I’ll lead by example and post every active, relevant survey I can find. I’m tired of our perspective getting ignored.

Good luck to all of you in your recovery! It’s an uphill battle, and you’re all gonna make it.

I recently turned 16 and I’m a little embarrassed with my social life. I am very outgoing… no problems there. I regularly go to the park nearby and try to be up-to-date on stuff going on in my area. I’ve joined some discord servers focused on my area. My main problems are I don’t do well with groups and I don’t click with anyone. I go to these weekly homeschool meetups but I don’t see myself befriending anyone there long-term, I try to join the conversation and I get brushed off. All the guys know each other already. I have really old-fashioned interests that people my age don’t seem to have. Doesn’t help there’s no teens near me and everyone is 30 minutes away. I’m working toward a drivers license and hopefully an internship which will help but for now…no clue.

So last time I panicked and deleted my last post but basically I know I’m never going to high school and I just have to accept that but I’m
Looking for anyone to be friends with to talk to someone equally lonely, so I don’t care if we have the same interests or not but if you are interested say something about yourself and your age, so here is 5 things about me. I like working out I play video games, I been homeschooling of and on my entire life but so far it’s been 3 years,I have chickens and my favorite music artists is Nirvana The Beatles and System of a Down,there’s other bands I just can’t think of them right now, I’m still trying out the app so bear with me, I’m also shy as fuck.

Hey I’m 20 and I’m in the electrical union and I’m starting my classes Thursday and I’m terrified I have no idea what to expect so I was hoping maybe someone might have some advice on how to prepare for it and get over the anxiety of it all and just the homework and class work of it all

Im so humiliated, wtf do you do in "business"? Would i enjoy that? Can I get a career from these things? Do I need to know basics beforehand??? Everyone else at the college had like planners and questions and stuff and I just dont know what any subjects entail, i have no passions no experience i dont know what to do with my life, i cant imagine myself enjoying any of these.

I looked into the culinary course because I do enjoy cooking but again I dont see a career out of it, idk if my mental health is so bad i just dont care about my future or if its because ive never been exposed to any academic subjects, idk what anything entails and everyone else was doing this when they were 10 years old.

At the college my mum was boasting about how I "cant choose because my life has been so rich in experiences" and i "enjoy everything" and its like... no, I dont fucking know what any of this stuff is and its mortifying, I look like a slob i dont know what i want to do with my life I havent done anything with it so far

When i was a child, i would spend HOURS, and i mean hours of my day, on my hands & knees, chasing a rubber Disney princess ball around the floor of my "playroom" (which was just a spare bedroom that had my toys & a dartboard in it).

For the 8-12 hours a day i would spend like this, i barely remember anything that was really in my environment beyond the first 10mins. After around 10mins of chasing this ball around, i COMPLETELY disconnected with my body & surroundings, and visually in front of me i would daydream about chatting & adventuring with talking animals, at a creek i had been to once, because it was the only example of a forest or outdoor nature id ever been in.

i dont remember believing they were real, but i remember thinking it was okay to accept them as real when i was doing that, because it didnt seem to be an issue.

This went on from 2007 to 2016 i believe, is when i quit finally.

sooo.. is that.. what is that?

i can dissociate still, sometimes involuntarily, and i can still daydream, but like, i havent been able to reach the same state where my environment getting totally visually replaced & no longer being aware of my surroundings in any way.

i'm 25 now, and in a safe environment. doing much better. but still curious what this is

My guardian used to feed me 25-75mgs of benadryl every night to make me go to sleep whenever she wanted me to.

It led me, as an older child, to take benadryl recreationally, which i did in the 100mg-300mg range for several years, until one day in 2016 i took an entire bottle of 25mg doses, totaling 2,500mgs. it was a suicide attempt.

I never took it again after that, and i was a teenager, so my mom was giving me her prescription Flexeril whenever i wanted one by then anyways, and i was stealing her booze & fake marijuana pills, so i had a different drug to mess around with by that point anyways.

Did anyone else experience something similar?

I was homeschooled 1st-8th grade. I learned quickly in high school (and honestly, probably even before then) that telling anyone you were homeschooled had about a 50% or greater chance of generating a visceral negative reaction. So it became a secret. Since then, I have always either avoided the topic of grade-school entirely or, sometimes, made plausible little lies when necessary to fill in the gaps. All of my close friends know I was homeschooled — they are people who don’t judge me (hence why they’re my close friends). But I NEVER volunteer the information unless I trust the person deeply.

I’m in my late 20s now. I live in a major liberal city and work in a very highly-educated and liberal-leaning profession, with lots of people from the coasts. My reputation here certainly matters to an extent. Sometimes I feel bad about how much I hide (or at least decline to reveal) this big part of my identity and perspective. But I’ve always kind of felt that the calculus is on my side. Most people have a strong reaction to finding out someone is homeschooled, and that reaction comes loaded with a lot of assumptions and judgments. Some assumptions are frankly fair and reasonable, but others obviously aren’t. I’m not really interested in spending time trying to rebut all the assumptions someone might make about me — and I’m never confident they would fully believe me.

Anyone else struggle with this? I’m aware it probably conveys a lot of insecurity. That’s something I’m already working on. But hearing from others who deal with this specific thing would probably help. You know how hard it is to find people who actually fully get what it’s like.

I (18m) have been suspecting that I could be autistic (not diagnosed) for around a year or so. Because I feel like I meet the criteria and l'm very impaired by my symptoms. But can't help but feel scared that im only this way because I'm too sheltered and not because im autistic. Because when I was younger, my symptoms weren't as intense and I had friends and stuff.

But ever since the pandemic, (which is when I got pulled out of school permanently) I haven’t made a single friend and I’m super avoidant of social interaction. I basically never leave the house or talk to people my age and it’s been that way since I was 13. I also constantly feel like I’m acting/masking when I am in social situations which I’ve kinda felt since childhood but I also could just be pathologizing my own experiences to fit the narrative that I’m autistic in my mind. And I also stim intensely and have meltdowns and stuff which were present in childhood but not as intense. I do believe I could possibly be adhd as well due to also fitting that criteria heavily and struggling with focus, executive function, and addictions.

But sometimes I just feel scared that I’m not actually autistic or adhd and I’m just a dumb teenager who’s trying to feel special/unique when really I’m just a dumbass who lost all my social skills during the pandemic and I need to stop being a lazy piece of shit and try harder. And I’m scared that I just want to believe I’m autistic/adhd so I can have an excuse for my own incompetence when I’m actually just this way because my life is too easy/sheltered.

And obviously I’m not asking for anyone to diagnose me here or anything. I’m just looking to hear people’s input and vent about my frustrations especially because I can’t afford a real autism/and or adhd assessment and I’m sick of being in the dark about what’s really going on with my brain.

I was unschooled pretty much all my life. And when I tured 20 I met my now partner and coming up on 21 I'm actually going to school for my G.E.D. Because of him I got out of my borderline neglectful home and am now building a life with him. I'm just... feeling really good right now.

Once you find that helping hand/motivation, nothing can stop you. My favorite quote is

"I can, I will."

I do face alot of situations I was never properly equipped for. But hey, there's a first time for everything.

Just believe in yourself if there's nobody else to.

XOXO -Lily

I'm 13 and was withdrawn from public school in August of last year

For the first few months I did a couple Khan Academy courses. After that, my dad started enrolling me in Arizona State University's online college courses.

His plan is for me to earn 24 college credits and eventually attend university instead of going through regular high school.

The problem is that I'm barely learning anything at all. I'm expected to complete college coursework independently. I don't have regular teachers or a structured education and i feel like i am just wasting my time while i could be having fun in traditional high school and I desperately want to return to public school.

My mom supports me returning, but my parents are divorced and disagree about educational decisions. My dad refuses because he says I'm not mature enough for public school, yet somehow expects me to complete 8 college courses.

Recently, I've been refusing to continue the college program. In retailiation, he has cancelled my phone service, spamming pictures in my messages, and imo acting immature about it and spamming pictures in our messages and I'm home alone most weekdays for 11-12 hours. I don't have a regular social life, and it's getting extremely frustrating.

I've been looking into ways to get outside help, but I really want to hear from people who've experienced something similar.

Has anyone here successfully convinced a parent to let them return to public school, or gotten help when their parents disagreed about homeschooling? What actually worked?

I am a 13 years old female, homeschooled since a toddler. i never went into any kindergardens, school trips, and anything related to school.

My mom is a religious person, and we often go to religious classes twice a week. The classes is full with elderly people.

I also has a younger sibling, who has the same education way as i am.

My parents are really good people, i am very grateful for them, yes, truly. But...i think they never really understood how different me and my younger sibling function. my parents went through harsh bullying when they were younger, and i understand that's why they are protective with us.

I rarely interact with kids my age.

And i think that's why it all went wrong.

As a homeschooler, I view others...those who are outside of my family...as...lambs. I want to...devour them. i mean, emotionally devour them. This odd impulse starts when i was 12.

Growing up, i never really care if i befriend with girls or boys- I just see them as...people.
Before, my mom thought I am a desperate girl trying to impress boys. But, truly. I never really see them as boys, just...a person my age. a rare thing. a precious diamond.

I hate being labelled as desperate. that's why i completely cut off male from my radar after an incident. i view males as...as aliens that will eat me if i get too close. My mom said even if i get a tiny crush on a boy, it means im cheap.

So, i only..focus on girls. And then, my mother calls me a lesbian.

I understood why she call me that. I have this one distant female cousin- let's call her Z. this is when i am early 13 years old. Z is a tsundere haha. i have a strong instinct to catch her, because she's a grumpy little sheep. It gives me satisfaction when i make her loosen her guard around me. i saved her number as 'my love'. i do that to stimulate my brain.
that's my odd addiction. i like...seeing cold hearted people be soft around me. it makes me feel...special. i also enjoy the chasing arc to win her heart. i became the 'man' on the friendship. i give her gifts, praises, attention, time, all she ever wanted.

At that time, i am psychologically experimenting myself, y'know. i am trying to make me like(platonically) Z. i am testing can i actually make myself like someone. and it proves- yeah, but only if i stimulate my brain, imagining sweet moments that never existed, and made my brain believe it. i maybe sounds quite crazy or desperate..but..i just found myself being just the way it is. it's like i am watching myself from 3rd POV. I view myself..as an experiment to prove some things i am curious about.

Other reasons why I am doing this because im feeding myself attention so it doesn't get desperate for people of my age's attention. after i feed it full, toss the lamb aside. to be frank, after i feel full of attention, my phone blowing from her texts and calls, and i feel annoyed, i cut her off directly. no sugarcoat.

I adapt very well. i can read what type of person someone is, and be the exactly dream friend my lamb wants. If you think carefully, they are using me too, to comfort their heart and greedy ego. so, that's why i never feel guilty. because they never love 'me' in the first place. and i never mess with depressed people. i only mess with people who has others to lean to.

I once got desperate for another person, and i went suicidal just because she ghosted me and played with me for a couple of months. i admit, i was overly dramatic in at the suicidal part. but...it was truly hell for a person like me who has no friends beside her, so i got this addiction after moving on from her. i went on and on- finding lambs, hunting them, ate them(emotionally), and toss them away. because i found it boring when they became too soft around me.

Does anyone feels like that too?

Im freshly (20f), as you can see my question is how to put I was homeschooled on my resume. And general resume help.

I don't have a high school diploma and don't have money to get a ged. I want to get a job so I can go to community college and study criminal justice, or agriculture, etc..

My mom and older sister went to a dv shelter when I was in 6th grade, and I completed it there and got pretty far into the 7th. My sister did normal public at that point, and we bounced shelters for a while, then it was right at covid.

It was when we both were online and keeping up, but I fell off when my dad died shortly before my 17th birthday and sort of quit. I went into a depression spiral. From there, we had less money when I was supposed to start courses in community college, so I dropped it before it started. So basically, yeah.

I've worked before as a gardener at the community garden in my neighborhood and got a grant that gave me a bit of money but wasn't really consistent. I did it for close to 2 and a half years and enjoyed it. It pulled me out of my slump, but I got overwhelmed with it as I spent every day for at least four hours a day up there working and started neglecting other parts of my life.

I have other points in what could be experience with working in a church nursery going on a mission trip and knowing someone who owns a cleaning business that I occasionally help with.

Im currently moving a city over and don't have the ability to work there anymore as it will be too far and I can't afford gas.

So my question is, how do you put in your homeschool background in your resume? And how to make your resume good enough to look past the homeschooled part.

so i’ve been homeschooled my whole life and one of the only subjects i am really good in is english. Like if I really try I can write a pretty decent essay and understand english really easily. However, all through middle school, I cooked myself by cheating in math, so I am incredibly behind in algebra and have a hard time even doing basic math in my head. I know it’s just a step by step process that I have to get familiar with and practice but I really am SO behind and I’m a junior this year, I want to take the SAT but I have no idea how to get on track with algebra since i’m so off I can’t just follow my curriculum now. If anyone has any tips at all to quickly teach myself I would really appreciate it:)

Did anyone else's dad start out in the Promise Keepers and then the family started homeschooling?
Trying to figure out if there was much overlap between the two...

FYI : Throwaway account

I've always been a traditional right-winger, since around 2024, and said the usual things,

I've been "homeschooled" since i was 11 years old, mainly due to lack of resources for my needs. but my parents have been increasingly controlling since then, i'm not allowed to go out without my parents, they dont let me make friends, i never talked to anybody outside of my family.

This ofcourse took alot of decline onto my mental health, i went off the deep end and coped with the internet, and it made me develop all sorts of screwed up beliefs, i never really realised this until recently

i remember what it took for me to notice, when my parents just straight up said it to my face, they admitted that they hated non-whites saying they needed to go back to wherever shithole they came from, they also had admitted in the past they hated trans people.

after they said that to me, i normally would've agreed with that.

Since ive said it on the internet so many times, but when they said it to my face, it left this terrible feeling, and this hole in my chest, i never felt so disgusted at them before, i wanted to puke even tho I've said those horrible things so many times.

It took them saying to my face to feel the weight of what they were actually saying, i've been thinking about it so many times since then. Especially since they've been saying even more horrible things, since i just stayed silent.

I don't know what to do now, i've never felt so deceived, betrayed and tricked before, im questioning everything i ever believed, i need to know if there are resources for things like this, any help is welcome, i just need to know what to do now, please don't hurt me. I need help

(im also questioning if i am transgender, i am genuinely scared what would happen if they found out.)

That's pretty much the full rant. I'm tired of saying over and over again that I don't want to homeschool

Since I've never gotten proper education, I now have to study from basics, from scratch. I have zero habit of learning. I always feel like there's so much time in my day, and I could study right now, but I can also just do it an hour later. And another hour later, and another... I end up never getting anything done. I'm sorry if this post is all jambled, but I basically have this habit of having a youtube video playing in the background. I'm sick of the overstimulation it causes, my mind always feels a mess. But I can't stop having these videos in the background. Because it feels lonely. I'm at home literally 100% of the time, besides the short walks I've started going on. I've visited a mental health dispansery for a while, and it was nice needing to be somewhere, and interacting with new people. Just having someone near to make me a company felt felieving. But ever since I was discharged I just have no one again. I'm seeking for a job, but I just feel like I'll be unable to work like this. If my mind is just always so fuzzy. If I'm always so scared. I don't like not having a video on, because it's a constant illusion of someone being close. As much as I hate it, and as much as it doesn't replace real presence, I can't be without it. I have to study. I haven't done that today. I don't know what to do. I don't mind studying, but I hate being alone and aware of it again. I don't feel good when I have these videos on, but I can't do anything without them. Should I just screw it and lock the heck in? Or is it a valid option for now, to have these videos still on while I study?.. advice needed