I see the occasional reference by another mother on one list or another about working while Dad does the at-home duty.
In our own homes chool circles, though, I am the only one. The rest of the families have the more traditional roles, or a situation where both parents are able to be home most of the time through work from home arrangements.
In any case, I am the mother who isn't available to get together for a play date or a group class on Tuesday at 10am.
Rod is usually, but not always, the only Dad on hand, too.
We are unusual not only in the sense of the gender difference, which would be reasonably easy to overcome, I think. There is also the fact that Rod and I have split the tasks pretty evenly. In most of the families we know, it seems as though the Mom does the researching, planning, and teaching. In our family, I do the research and then plan with Rod's input and he does the lion's share of the teaching. That means that we both want to be at the curriculum discussion, which the other moms see as a "Mom's night out".
As people get more used to us, it's working out OK. There are some Moms who have just stopped inviting Jack and I anywhere, and others have started issuing the invitations to Rod and Jack. A few have started suggesting get-togethers at times that I can play too. Since I'm not terrible social anyway, I am fine with mostly not being involved in the socializing aspect of homeschooling.
I have to say, though, that I was thrilled when the most recent curriculum discussion was scheduled on a Friday evening specifically so I could play to. I had a blast! I have been researching and planning for a long time, but it is so seldom that I get to share ideas with other people who are passionate as I am -- what a rush! I learned a LOT and it was fun to share with other people as crazy as I am.
What was especially fun is that we all seemed to have such different priorities and srtyles, and yet so many of the basics were similar!
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