My husband, son and I moved from a city to a rural area next door to my parents years ago. It seemed the right thing to do, but there are sometimes difficult consequences for doing the right thing.
We have to drive over 15 miles to go to a Walmart and almost 20 miles to go to a library since there isn't one in our small town. My son hates the isolation and I wish there was something I could do about it. I would have loved to see him play more with other kids when he was younger but we live in an area with mostly retired people. He only got to play with other kids when he did plays in musical theater.
Our small town school playground was not a safe place to play because of bullies. He only went to kindergarten there. Recently, a middle school boy had his head dunked in the toilet at school. The school says they are taking bullying seriously but I don't believe it. We homeschool but this still bothers me so much to know that other people are going through this. I became a helicopter parent when I found out about the bullying in our town and felt the criticism of the judgmental people whose religion requires shunning of people who are different from them in some ways. Members of my family that I thought would be nice for my son to grow up around are members of this religion. Luckily, my son is very perceptive and instinctively knew that he needed to watch what he said if he played with their kids. For example, when he saw the movie Avatar he knew that his cousins were forbidden to see it so he didn't mention it but he also had a feeling that he might offend them in some way without knowing it because there were so many things they were against because the preacher had said it was bad. Playing is not much fun when you have to worry so much about offending your playmates.
My 14-year-old car is being repaired now. It will cost over $2000 to fix it which means we will be forced to stay home even more to pay for it. We can't afford new car payments. Gas prices went up so high that we limit going out anywhere.
I have an amazing 14-year-old gifted kid with dysgraphia and low muscle tone and sensory processing issues that affect his endurance. He developed scoliosis at age 11 which requires that he wear a brace, further limiting his activities but he learns more than I ever learned on his own.
Learning is playing to him. He is having fun learning Japanese and reading a lot about the Japanese culture, but when I told a family member about it I had to deal with their bigotry and I realize that my son is right when he tells me not to tell anyone about what he is learning or doing.
Sometimes my son and I really need a break from this place but we will have to persevere. I would love for us to be able to play and enjoy life without other people judging us.
