Whenever people learn we homeschool our kids, the follow-up response tends to be something asking about…
Socialization.
“But what about socialization?”
My response these days is that we let our children out of the dungeon for 30 minutes a day, they get to walk the perimeter of the yard twice, eyes downward, then it’s back into the cage.
Usually that response works because people see the exaggeration and realize the absurdity of not only my response, but their question. But for a moment yes, this is about what people think. That just because our kids don’t spend 8+ hours a day surrounded by others of their age that somehow our children will turn out socially retarded.
Today I hear about this story, of a 68-year-old bus monitor receiving all manner of abuse from middle-school kids.
Here’s the original video
What sort of socialization leads to this sort of behavior? Where 13-year-olds find it not just acceptable — but enjoyable — to abuse and drive an elderly woman to cry.
I refuse to allow my children to be around this is the sort of socalization.
So yeah… what about “socialization”?
Stuff From Hsoi 
I think interaction with other kids is normal and healthy, but you do have to be aware of who they’re hanging out with and whether their relationships are having positive or negative affects on them.
As for the kids in that video, all of their parents should be flogged for paying so little attention to, and providing so little guidance to, their children to allow them to become such mean little shits. If I ever got the idea that someone my daughter was hanging out with was behaving anything like that, the kid’s parents would catch hell from me and they would know that their kid was forbidden to talk to my kid.
That’s really the fundamental thing: parental involvement, and the parent ensuring the kids are on the right path.
I don’t home school, but I admire parents who do. It’s all to easy to pan the kids of the the system, no matter how much it sucks. You always have someone to blame.
One has to know there limitation though, and in my case – I don’t think I would make a very good home schooler.
I hear lots of people that say they wouldn’t be good home schoolers, but I also believe a lot of people would surprise themselves if they gave themselves a chance. But then, some people truly know themselves well enough and know their limitations.