Experiencing Burn-Out As a Homeschooling Parent?

Burn out is defined as fatigue, frustration, or apathy resulting from prolonged stress, overwork, or intense activity.

There was a time when burn out was my normal. I lived and home schooled this way for at least 2-3 yrs. It began to affect me physically. That’s when I knew I had to do something different.

The solution wasn’t a different curriculum or changing our schedule or rearranging the school room. Even taking breaks didn’t work because when the break was over, the problem remained.

The fix was changing my thinking about what real learning is. “Why should the teacher burn out when learning happens in the learner?” If anything the learner should burn out because this is all for them, they are the ones doing all the learning.

It’s like the chef becoming frustrated by trying to feed the hungry. The feeding happens “in” the hungry. The chef will NEVER burn out IF he prepares just what the hungry wants to eat. The hungry will eat until they are full, then push away from the table. The chef burns out when trying to force feed something the hungry doesn’t want to eat.

Now, I can’t believe how totally burn out free we are as a family. This has become a personal mission, like a modern day Harriet Tubman, to free H’school moms from the danger of burn out. It robbed me of peace and left me looking crazy as the owl on the right, seriously!