Attitude is everything!

I can't tell you how many times my children and myself have been asked "oh, is school out today?"
I have learned a very important lesson since we began homeschooling and that is, 'attitude is everything!'
I have a good friend that I knew when my oldest was just 2 or 3 years old. She had a fun, big family and always had just the right answers when asked about homeschooling. Once, while meeting her at our local grocery store, we were chit-chatting by the cashier about our next homeschool group activity. The cashier overheard us and asked very skeptically why we would do such a thing? She continued to tell us about people she knew that homeschooled and how socially backwards they were, how they dressed weird, etc., etc. etc. Well, me being very young, impressionable and a bit easily swayed, broke out in a hot sweat, was unable to respond intelligently and felt a bit inadequate as a mother and a person on the whole. Luckily, my dear friend was there to save me. She responded simply and confidently and I may even add, very lovingly, "Oh, no! You are so mistaken. Homeschooling is the most wonderful thing in the world! We are so blessed to live in a country where we can do this. It is wonderful and it works for our family. "
Well, the cashier woman was speechless! I expected a big debate, but no! She respected my friends' answer and left it at that. I was amazed to say the least. Here I had been humming and hawing when people asked me if we homeschooled. I never answered like that before. I didn't have the confidence that she had........yet. I was trying to be an "in-the-closet" homeschooler. I learned that I had to be confident in my decision, and let others know my confidence.
I went home and told my husband about what had happened at the grocery store. We decided that from then on we wanted to be more confident in our decision and to respond with a good attitude.
Go ahead, try it. The next time someone asks if you homeschool or why your kids aren't in school, just respond with a great attiude "Yes, we homeschool, and it's the greatest thing in the world!". You'll see, they will be speechless and continue on with whatever it was they were doing. ;)