Rebuttal

This morning I received an email notification that I had two new comments on a post from way back in March of this year that dealt with my reaction to the HPV vaccine. Wow! How cool!! So, being the curious sort, I followed the persons profile and checked out her blog. And discovered that I am the subject of her most recent post. Yikes! As I was reading, I realized that my point was totally missed. And, just in case millions (ha ha) of people stop by here because of her link to me, I thought perhaps I should lay my thoughts out. So, I am posting the comment that I left on this mom's post. I am not trying to start or fuel fires, I just want to make sure I am not misunderstood. :)

Hi, thanks for visiting my page... I think I should clear a couple things up because it sounds like you may have missed my point. :)
We have not chosen to homeschool because of a vaccine... We HAVE chosen to teach our children at home to give them a better education - to give them one-on-one attention because there are many schools out there where kids get lost in the cracks, despite most teacher's best efforts to not let that happen.
We have also chosen to homeschool because we want that Christian base to their education, but what is available is almost an hour away and will cost THOUSANDS of dollars per year. I was sent to that particular school growing up. I don't really have a problem with it at all... It was a good education and there was the Christian base. However I don't have the money to spend nor do I want to submit my kids to two hours on the road alone 180 days per year.
We are trying to raise them to the best of our ability with a strong faith and one that they will hopefully hold on to and not walk away from... for a time or *forever*. Teaching them at home comes into play here. But, if they ever do stray, I will still love them and stand by their sides.... God's love is unconditional. Shouldn't ours be as well? We homeschool our kids because there are some things in public schools that we would rather not have our kids presented with AT THIS TIME. For instance, our son would be getting "sex ed" soon, and we would rather that he get the Biblical perspective as well as "this is how our body works" and not the "here are some condoms, if you ever need an abortion, let us know, your parents never need to find out if you don't want them to" perspective that public schools give.
Another GREAT perk to homeschooling is that their friends in public school are on the bus at 8:00 (or earlier), school at 8:30, school lets out at 3:30, they arrive home at 4:00 (or later), homework 'til dinner time, possibly more homework after dinner, have an hour or two of free time, then head to bed. Get up the next morning and do it all over again. However (here is the perk), our kids get up early, get their work done - school and homework all rolled into one - and have the rest of the day as "free time".
THOSE are some of the reasons that we homeschool. As far as my reaction to the vaccination, everyone has the right to choose as they feel led on this point. To be honest, yes, I do feel that this may send the wrong message to our kids just as passing out condoms does. But that is just my personal opinion. My actual PROBLEMS per say with the HPV vaccine is that in some states it is becoming mandatory. I disagree with that. That is where my comment about being glad we homeschool came into play. If New York were to mandate this vaccine, we would not be under it because of the fact that they are not in public schools. I just have a hard time with the government telling me that I MUST take something. It seems to me that it is taking some of my freedom away. It should be our choice, and if it turns out that it was the wrong one, then it should be my fault. But I should not be forced to give it to her. Also, this vaccine isn't thoroughly tested yet. What are the side effects? How long does it even last? Would I be putting my daughter in *possible* danger to negative side effects to only have her protected for ten years? HPV is not something that has had a ton of research. Those are my concerns. That is where I stand on that issue and on the homeschooling issues. I hope that clears up any confusion.