Amanda Bynes, successful television comedienne and now very troubled and under a 5050 hold after setting a fire at a retirement home in Thousand Oaks, California, is the daughter of one of my mother's best friends from high school. They have kept in touch. Mrs. Bynes is a good woman and had been an involved, loving mother.
as a young teen headlining a Nickelodeon show
troubled in 2013
Now that Amanda is getting professional help, I pray that all will be well. I made the mistake of reading some comments on an article about Amanda's latest troubles and most of the comments were railing against her parents. "Where are the parents? They must have really screwed their daughter up!" No, Mr and Mrs Bynes never forced her to be in show business and they struggled with maintaining a normal life. In any case, she is not a minor.
What does Amanda Bynes have to do with my experience with homeschooling? Well- many, many people have preconceived notions about what homeschooling is. I say "homeschooling" and people imagine my children are incarcerated at home all day. People who have any connection to Amanda Bynes can ask her parents directly for information. Everyone else should realize that they have no idea if her parents dropped the ball or not.
We can only judge when we have all the information, and usually, there is no reason to spend time judging those we don't know.
We need to be judgmental within our own family, however. I have made a judgement that for now my children will be homeschooled. It is this strong feeling that gives me the strength to oversee my children's education and to get in the car yet again for their many supplemental activities.
But just because I have judged what is best for my children right now, this does not give me the right to judge another family's intentional choice. There are pros and cons to everything in life. School would make certain aspects of my life easier. If I hadn't judged that homeschooling was best for the children right now, I wouldn't be doing it.
and like Amanda Bynes' parents, we cannot judge them when we don't know their reality.
Word, preoteasa!
ReplyDeleteI have known Lynn Bynes since I was four years old. We have been in contact since and actually moved out from our parents' home lived together with another friend when we were eighteen. We just had lunch two years ago when she and her husband came up to Oregon from California. They are normal and have not abused her in any way and love Amanda so much this is killing them.
ReplyDeleteGod has a plan for Amanda's life and it's not Hollywood. This is what's driven her madness, not being in the real world. It finally caught up with her.
Let's pray this is rock bottom.