Inspiration

Posted by Vulnadia on May 22, 2009 at 06:42 PM This next week, we will be venturing down to the Houston area for a dear friend's daughter's graduation!!! My friend is definately not your average everyday mom, either! Her kids were all born and raised on the renaissance festival circuit. Essentially, they grew up living away from the usual home environment. Sure, they had a home to come home to, but most of the girls early life was spent on the road, living in the campgrounds of various festivals nationwide. The youngest were considered homeschooled because they went to school on circuit with a teacher who held class with her small group of kids that often times changed depending on what faire was being worked. I remember when it came time to get them into public school and they wanted to hold the girls back based on principle alone of them never having gone before. Then there were the times my friend found herself called to the office. Once, over the content of one of the girls' essays which was to have been about where they were living, or their home. At the time, their house had burned down and the family was living on site in their father's Museum. The call came because the essay was about how she lived in a castle over a dungeon with a torture chamber and the staff were concerned about the child being delusional. We all had a good giggle over my friend having to tell them that she couldn't possibly punish her daughter over the because it was in fact true! Well, they both graduated/will graduate with honors in spite of everything, essays included!! Their mom also worked on the set of Dallas, and even has her own cult following for a bit part she landed because she could cock a shotgun one handed. This scared Ben Affleck with it in the process of the audition...Yep, she's the shotgun mom from Dazed & Confused...aka Carl's mother....all this and somehow all four of her kids grew up and are doing just fine! This lady is one of the folks that makes sure that I know I'm not crazy and makes certain that I keep my sanity! So if you find yourself raising your kids in a different setting, around different types of people than the social norm, just know that you are not alone, and that they will turn out great no matter what anyone else says!