Unsocialized Homeschoolers

There are many truths about homeschooling that I find pretty funny.  Yes, my kids do spend a good chunk of their study time in pajamas. Why not?  Wouldn't you want to?  Yes, we sometimes take a day off just because.  Again, why not?  We don't have to be done with school on a certain day in June!  

But the one thing that always gets me, especially when asked by people who should know better, is the socialization question.

"What do you do about socialization if your kids are homeschooled?"

The answers to this question, both serious and fun, have been discussed at length and always amuse me.  I don't think we've ever really "thought" about socialization.  It just happens.  With all types and ages of people.

But recently, a new development with Equestrian Girl had someone asking me a new socialization question.

This happened.  A nice young man brought her roses and asked her to be his girlfriend.  And someone asked me how a homeschooled girl gets a boyfriend.  

Really?  Is it possible to think that a homeschooled child is so UN-socialized that their hormones don't work and that they never learn about the opposite sex?  

To make it even more interesting, I was then asked if the boy is also homeschooled.  He isn't.  Are homeschooled children only allowed to socialize with each other?  Is it possible that no contact can be allowed with those "public" school children?  I can very honestly say that both of my kids have more public schooled friends than they do homeschooled kids.  Since this is the case, isn't it quite likely that they'd end up dating a public schooled friend?  Motocross Boy/Man had his first girlfriend last spring.  She was also a public schooled girl.

Now what I do find interesting about the relationship between this public schooled boy and my homeschooled girl is how the relationship is so 'protected' compared to one between two students going to the same school.  Their closest friends have all seen them together and of course, it's public on social media that they are a couple, but there's no peer pressure for their relationship to be anything but what they want it to be.  It's rather refreshing and one of those unexpected benefits of having homeschooled kids.