See, Even Bill Gates Is Leaving Nada To Kids

See, don’t baby your kids. @myo, move to SF instead and let your children grow up in the real world, where they have to deal with the homeless and sometimes deranged people. I tell my sister, no more home schooling. That is NOT the real world!!!

Please don’t denigrate homeschooling. Calling that “not the real world” is pretty ridiculous. Homeschoolers are free to do some pretty adult things like start a business and do research.

IMO, there is difference between leaving something vs making them ready. I am into latter (as I am sure many of us are). I am sure Gates spent millions to get their kids armed with good education, experience and etc. It is okay to let them fly alone. Parenting is hard!

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Just some perspective. Even 1% of Bill Gates’ 70B fortune is 700M. If daddy is really mean he would just leave them 0.1%, which is a measly 70M.

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Let me clarify @Terri since you guys need me to spell out every single word as opposed to reading between the lines. It is fine, to a certain point though. One shouldn’t shelter a child from the real world forever was my point. One has to learn how to deal with all kinds of people out there. Some smarter. Some not.

Some live in houses. Some live in tents. Some pee in bathrooms. Some pee on streets? :smile:

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Not sure what your point is. How is sheltering a child forever from interacting with others a good thing??? One does not live in a vacuum. I find it funny you knock it but you moved to SF partially for the Chinese immersion schooling…

I think @Terri’s point is that home schooling is not necessarily sheltering kids from reality. And I can see her point. In real life people don’t just socialize with people of the same age like in a classroom. People also tackle more poorly defined problems not just textbook problems with fill in the blanks. So you can argue homeschooling is actually more like the real world.

I have a lot of respect for parents doing homeschooling. It takes a tremendous amount of work.

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Definitely Manch!

I’ve thought about homeschooling my kids. Mostly my oldest. It would have been to shelter him from boredom. Some people say boredom is a part of life. I believe some boredom is parents not bothering to do what’s right for their kids. Unfortunately, my kid was 2-3 years ahead in math and not being challenged. We were lucky to find him an awesome school that was willing to challenge him–he’s now 4+ years above grade level in math and learning programming and has an awesome science teacher (literally the best), but I am very grateful that homeschooling could have been an option if we hadn’t found this school.

One thing I want my kids to learn is that they are never too young to work a job, make a buck, and start a business. And homeschooling would absolutely lend to that. So much freedom and flexibility to spend time doing worthwhile pursuits whereas most schools have the kids 8am-3pm and then load on 2-3 hours of homework. I’m trying to start businesses with my older two, and while #2’s is pretty simple to get going, #1’s would be better done 30 hours a week rather than 5. I’m not going to take him out of his current school to do it, but if he were in his old school still, I could see saying to him “Let’s spend a year getting this business going as a homeschooler.” and it being a life-changing choice for him.

That said, for parents who want to “shelter their kids” from the bad behavior of other kids, I honestly respect that too. Because some of the kids out there are bad influences, some kids make bad choices in friends, and some schools can’t keep the bad behavior under control. As a parent, it’s your job to do your best. And if you don’t have kids sfdragonboy, it’s not yours to judge (I hate saying that to kidless people, but I will this time).

Now, if when the kid is 18, they’re not allowed to leave home… yeah. I’ll agree that’s sheltering too much :slight_smile:

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Wow, I am impressed by both you and your kids.
4+ years above grade level in math is certainly a big deal but planning his/her own business as a kid is really impressive. :slight_smile:

Entrepreneurship, self discipline and personal finance in general need to be taught in high school if not sooner. I think learning about facts like geography or chemistry is a very poor use of school time. Those facts you will promptly forget after exams are over. Well for me anyway. :smile:

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True event recently:

Ring ring
Hello
Hi Uncle Sfdragonboy
Oh hi boyfriend of gorgeous half asian half white niece
Hey, thanks for the advice on finding an apartment in the city. Question though, so many of the ads are asking that I send them money before they can proceed with showing me the apartment. Should I send cash or check?

Def a home schooled kid from the burbs…

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WB also donate his wealth, and leave a little money, about $1 billion for each child.

Is this the same bill gates that used cutthroat and illegal methods to gain a monopoly in the operating system and browser markets? is he trying for redemption now with his foundation?

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I never imagine Bill Gates would turn out to be this benevolent grandfather type figure. Guess that’s what a few billions can do…

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So, tell me, @Terri where do you stand as a parent on the subject of immunizing kids? There are these crazy parents that want to forego immunizations altogether even though medical professionals advise otherwise. Can’t I as a non parent be judgmental in such a scenario when their kids could spread their diseases and germs to the general public?

Thank you.

We are doing the business together–I’m not going to pretend like they’re doing it themselves. And honestly, I think that’s a good thing. When you run a business, you should look to the help of experts and advisors rather than trying to be a one man show.

The thing that I find absolutely funny about both @Terri and @manch is that both parents are not practicing homeschooling, yet, are vehemently for it. A bit hypocritical, no? It would be one thing if you practiced it and loved it, I would say bravo to you. Well done. But don’t knock another opinion that has just as much merit as your opinion.

No one ever suggested that it was not fine and appropriate to do it some. But, I do believe at some point, you do have to let your children interact with other kids, in all settings. You really aren’t doing them any service by sheltering them from the world.

When you say I wouldn’t know from a non-parent’s perspective, well, you are wrong @Terri. I was talking to my sis and she mentioned that her home schooled child did not want to go to a normal school next year. So, when is it going to happen? See, there is the hint of not wanting to interact with others already. Once kids have been doing things a certain way, it is hard to ween them off of it. It doesn’t take a genius or a parent to understand this.

Have you been vaccinated with the current schedule for kids? Are you still immune for the ones you got as a kid? If not, you are just as likely to “spread diseases” as anyone who is not vaccinated for that disease.

plus
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/who/teens/downloads/parent-version-schedule-7-18yrs.pdf

Now tell me, even as an adult, why you would get a pharmaceutical drug that the manufacturers have zero liability for without thinking really hard about the decision and weighing the pros and cons. The 1986 National Vaccine Injury Act was passed to remove all liability from manufacturers and health care providers in the US if you or your child is injured or dies (note that in any other country, you can still sue the manufacturers, get a jury, and have discovery–but not in the US). It was passed because the manufacturers were losing money on the vaccines because the lawsuits were too costly, and they pressured lawmakers to give them “immunity” from lawsuits.

Keep in mind that the fact that they were losing money on childhood vaccines is interesting since, for many other pharmaceuticals, the manufacturers made a hefty profit even after the paying off the development costs and the lawsuits.

For me, it’s all about statistics. Some vaccines are worth it, some are not. I do my research, and I try to help others understand the pros and cons of each vaccine and the risks of each disease, but I don’t judge other people on it–I know a lot of people who’ve had vaccine injuries, some very serious.

PS: keep in mind that doctors have a lopsided liability when it comes to vaccines. They can recommend a vaccine that might injure or kill you and they have zero liability, even if they knew you had a contraindiction to it. But if you catch the disease, and they didn’t recommend the vaccine, you can sue them. So they have no incentive at all to not recommend every vaccine the CDC recommends for your age group even if they wouldn’t get it for themselves. They also get incentives for having a certain percentage of kids in their practice who are up to date with their vaccines.