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I read this book back in 2018 after my sister recommended it to me. As someone who was homeschooled and grew up in a sheltered environment and knew many families who sheltered their kids a LOT more than I was sheltered, this book hit pretty close to home. And I found that I could relate to much of it in a way that maybe many people wouldn’t be able to.
That said, it also made me so grateful for the education I received through homeschooling and how much my parents invested in me. I know that isn’t always the case, as evidenced in this pretty extreme story.
Beth says
As both a health professional and a homeschooler (I was homeschooled 7-12th and we’re currently homeschooling our kids) I thought the book was better taken as a memoir on growing up with a mentally ill parent (or parents) than on problematic homeschooling. There definitely can be inept and/or hyperconservative homeschooling but in this story that was a symptom of mental illness controlling a family not the cause or even the main problem.
I’d recommend borrowing it from the library to get a perspective on what it can be like to grow up with a severely mentally ill parent. The husband of one of my instructors grew up in a similar (but I’m pretty sure not homeschooled) family and his childhood was traumatic. I think the title and reviewers’ emphasis on her schooling distracts from the real problem of mental illness.