Teacher shares stupid reasons why parents homeschool their kids: 'No Crocs in PE, cafeteria doesn’t give kids chocolate milk, cell phone ban'

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
Aug 15, 2026 7:45 AM EDT

Those are not great reasons for homeschooling your kids. 

You'd be surprised how many parents think childhood ends the second their kid starts school. They believe that education marks the beginning of the end of innocence and a stress-free life, and that parents should keep their kids at home, away from other kids, for as long as possible, to ensure they stay pure. Maybe they feel this way because they had negative experiences with schooling as a child, but I don't get this mentality. Kids, no matter their age, get bored if all they have to do all day is stay home and hang out with their parents. Heck, I get bored as an adult if I have to stay home all day with nothing to do! We don't structure our society around school and work solely because of capitalism! We do it because we feel better about ourselves and our lives if we have something to do and people to see every day! Maybe this is a biased perspective from an extrovert early bird, but it's my story, and I'm sticking to it! 

Many parents are still living with the same mentality they had as kids. They think that school is bad because it restricts their kids' freedom. Having your kid enrolled in public school means you can't do whatever you want with them at any hour, any day, which can upset them. While there are a ton of good reasons for homeschooling, there are an equal number of terrible ones. I do not understand why so many parents are willing to disrupt their children's education over minor issues. The teacher in this story shared her experience with parents who are homeschooling for foolish reasons, and I'm inclined to agree with her annoyance. 

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  • 01
    Homeschooled kids doing their schoolwork at the kitchen table.
    via Jessica Lewis 🦋 thepaintedsquare

    Homeschooled kids doing their schoolwork at the kitchen table. 

    Still frame for contextual reference only.

  • 02

    "This is why we homeschool."

    I'm a public school teacher/coach for 16 years. I'll preface this by saying I know public schools have their problems and I'm not even entirely against homeschooling in a lot of circumstances.
    via u/GreezyGz
  • 03
    But it drives me up the wall when someone has the most small potatoes complaint on Facebook and there's three comments of "this is why we home school!"
    via u/GreezyGz
  • 04
    School changing the pick up line from last year. School makes you buy two boxes of Kleenex. Cafeteria doesn't give you chocolate milk. The literal LAW that says you can't have cell phones. No Crocs in PE. Field trip got moved cause it rained.
    via u/GreezyGz
  • 05
    Teacher said water bottles need lids. Your kid who never played baseball till his Senior year didn't make Varsity. If these are the things you get bent out of shape about, then public education just might never be good enough for you.
    via u/GreezyGz
  • 06
    otter_759 Part of me is glad that we don't have to deal with those parents. But it is going to be tough for those kids once they become adults.
    via u/otter_759
  • 07
    Dependent Occasion58 I'd bet less than 10% of the people making those comments actually homeschool their kids.
    via u/Dependent_Occasion58
  • 08
    MarshyHope Most of the comments I see like that are from grandparents who aren't raising their grandchildren anyway
    via u/MarshyHope
  • 09
    Grandparents spending time with their grandchildren whom they didn't raise.
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

    Grandparents spending time with their grandchildren whom they didn't raise. 

    Picture does not depict real parties.

  • 10
    FlannellsTheColor They're the people who pull their kid to homeschool for a month and then realize how hard it is and send them back to school a month behind.
    via u/FlannellsTheColor
  • 11
    Live-Medium8357 As a homeschool mom for many years, I agree. Some of the things parents say is ridiculous. All of my kids are in public school this year and none of those things are on my list of annoyances. trust me - those parents are insufferable to their peers as well.
    via u/Live-Medium8357
  • 12
    OddCabinet7096 you nailed it. homeschool parents find these people insufferable, too. their poor kids.
    via u/OddCabinet7096
  • 13
    Strange-Location4627 I see these posts a lot. My kids go to public school, I am an aide at a public school, we are certainly grateful for what we have, however we also have tons of friends and people in our community that homeschool. Our homeschool friends are all doing pretty fr king fantastic ☺, especially with how many hybrid programs there are, dual enrollment in high school and their ability to take up multiple hobbies and extra curricular activities.
    via u/Strange-Location4627
  • 14
    They travel, they work, they cook, they do laundry, they take full class loads, they volunteer, many of them seem to take Latin exams, read a ton and seem to also have time for debates, robotics, music, art, sports, theater, volunteering and foreign languages. They all got into colleges they wanted to go to and the few that chose to not go the traditional college route are all living independently or in unique study abroad programs. I'm talking 45 separate families and not one specific homeschoo
    via u/Strange-Location4627
  • 15
    I do understand the dangers of homeschool in the wrong environment, but I think the war on either side is a weird one. Both the comments you are referring to are not helpful toward teachers navigating so much but also the bias we have in public school when we get a homeschool family that has struggled. We don't often get the thriving ones we get the ones that weren't successful for various reasons. I can admit how amazing the teachers at my school are and how absolutely bogged down by meetings,
    via u/Strange-Location4627
  • 16
    Sunnyshine010 I mean, I think there's a dialectic here: Those are all reasonable things for public schools to do; schools need room to maneuver and we should trust teachers' discretion in a lot of cases. And, it's okay to want to opt out of a system that requires compromise for the maintenance of a group dynamic that doesn't exist outside of the school system (which is to say that you can, in fact, customize your entire life if you are committed to doing so and you have the capital to do it) But
    via u/Sunnyshine010
  • 17
    haileyskydiamonds I wonder if the homeschooling parents let their kids use phones during lessons.
    via u/haileyskydiamonds
  • 18
    Homeschooled kids playing on their cell phones in the middle of their lesson.
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

    Homeschooled kids playing on their cell phones in the middle of their lesson.

    Individuals pictured is a model used for illustrative purposes.

  • 19
    TheJemiles Admin not honoring a request to put a child in a class with their friend. Then posting the conversation that happened behind closed doors to Facebook. This just happened in my school.
    via u/TheJemiles
  • 20
    Plus Scientist_1063 As a MS school counselor, I have seen parents take their kids out of our school so they can be homeschooled. Maybe a worksheet here or there the first couple of months. I have seen parents bring their kids back to re enroll 2 years later with test scores showing their child is now 2 years behind. Seen this happen more than a few times.
    via u/Plus_Scientist_1063

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school elementary school kids middle school teachers public school private school teacher educational back to school homeschooling homeschool high school education
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