Dealing with Disappointment

Disappointment occurs throughout all areas of our lives. We deal with it in one way or another and when it comes to homeschooling disappointment can arise but that doesn’t mean it isn’t working.

Dealing with Disappointment

There are times where we will face disappointment. Sometimes our lives don’t work out the way we planned it. I know this is true for me. I had a dream for the way my life would look, and it ended up looking a lot different. Sometimes the picture that we hold for ourselves, for our family, fades away or morphs into something else that we never expected. It is normal to feel disappointed in your homeschool at times, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t working or that it isn’t worth it. Before we dig into dealing with disappointment, please take a moment to pin this post to your homeschool board.

We all have plans

We all have plans whether it is for our life or for our homeschool, we all have a picture in our head of how things should be. Sometimes the happily ever afters end and the smart, successful human beings we are working so hard to raise turn into a puzzle that we just can’t seem to figure out. Maybe a piece of the puzzle is missing or you just have this nagging feeling that something isn’t right. Sometimes our perfect picture shatters and it isn’t our fault, sometimes everything is not figureoutable the way we want it to be. Sometimes rolling up our sleeves and all the elbow grease in the world doesn’t work to “fix” the problem.

Sometimes we get angry because others are just so inflexible, and sometimes we are the ones who are inflexible and we don’t even see it. Sometimes the desire to win, to have your way defeats, damages, destruct our happiness, or the happiness of those we love.

There are times where our bodies get sick, taken over by germs or cells that ruin our chances to fulfill everything we have planned for our lives. Sometimes these germs or cells live in someone we love, our family, our friends, our children. Sometimes they take them away and we are angry, or sad, unsure how we can go on.

There are other times where it doesn’t matter how much we have worked to protect them, or how many nights of sleep were spent worrying. There are times where our children disappoint us, they fall into some sort of tragedy or crime we never ever planned on. We may have even thought not my child while making judgments of others.

Sometimes our innocent and vulnerable children are violated while we are working hard to provide for them a better life or keep everything together.

We all suffer many different kinds of disappointments, we feel like failures, we feel like we are being judged for every mistake we make.

Dealing with the Disappointments

While there is no magical way to avoid disappointments, disappointment is real and unavoidable no matter who you are, and we cannot face it with the could have, should have, would have thoughts we all have in the middle of the night.

Disappointment is a stepping stone, a rough and painful trip into a brand new beginning with brand new chances, tools and experience. Just because your plan isn’t working out as you want it doesn’t mean that the world is over, sometimes these problems, or difficult puzzles lead us to where we need to be. Offering a new way to live and love for however long we have left in this world. Disappointment can change the way we think, it forces us to grow and evolve. It is our chance to ask real questions rather than seeking to correct answers. It gives us the change to take risks, explore the secret ideals we have overlooked. It is our chance to have an authentic journey versus a second-hand one from books, parents, leaders. It is our chance to pay attention to people as they are versus what we wish they can be. It is our chance to pay attention to who we are, what really matters to us,it forces us to become who we are in a brand new way.

Fear of Disappointment

Don’t let the fear of disappointment stop you from living your life, taking chances in and out of your homeschool. Disappointment isn’t something to be feared, it is something we all go through in our lives, not matter how much we try to avoid it. Support one another instead of placing shame, judgment or blame.