As 4th child of 5, and 4th within 5 years, I understand the desire to spend one on one time with mom. We got our time together when she drove me to swim team to be around other kids and gain confidence by being good at something other than academics. I don't necessarily have a problem with home schooling, but when it's done correctly (and I have seen it done correctly) the kids get out and away from mom and dad on a very frequent basis, play in sports, participate in Girl Scouts (or one of the other myriad groups for girls that moms can also participate in), and perform community service. Finding another way to be only at home and only with mom can only be unhealthy.

Whether you call it a sorority or a club, it's still creepy and feels like the first 5 minutes of the Lifetime Original that ends with Mom throwing herself and all of her kids off a cliff. And no, I'm not kidding. I think both you and ALL of your children need help.

This is what I was thinking, but I didn't want to say it.

I don't have kids, and I won't pretend to be an expert on the subject.. However, if your daughter is spending her entire day with you, and she wants to be with you more, I don't think you should then try to create an exclusive club that includes only the two of you.

Again, a group like the Girl Scouts (or something similar) provides a good opportunity for your daughter to spend time with you, but to also branch out and meet other young girls her own age.. Which is very important at this stage in her life. You don't want to pull her in more and inadvertantly make her attached to you. I've seen it happen - one of my friends in college did EVERYTHING with her mom growing up (almost every story she told started with, "My mom and I..") and then she couldn't even get a C on a paper without calling her mom and crying about it. She dropped out halfway through her sophomore year to go to a community college 10 minutes from her house.

It's great that your daughter wants to spend time with you.. Just make sure she's getting out and meeting other people. And don't try to "shut out" the outside world by creating an exclusive group for just the two of you. You're mother and daughter.. That's a pretty special club in and of itself.

And if your daughter saw the show Greek and is interested in what Greek life is about, explain to her that sororities are groups that girls join in college, and when she gets to college, she can try to join one too.

Everything else aside, I really don't understand why some are finding it so hard to believe that it's possible (very possible in my experience, if not the norm) for people to go to a school with Greek life and still know next to nothing about fraternities and sororities beyond what popular culture has told them. If Greek life wasn't on their radar screen while they were in school, and if their social circle in school didn't intersect with Greek circles, why would they really know anything about it, especially if the school was a large one where it is quite possible to go without really interacting with Greeks?

^^^Speaking as one of those people - yes to all of the above (and for the record I agree with everyone else that this whole thing is too weird for words, but hey, if a club makes her daughter happy and her happy...whatever).

Now back to MysticCat's point......


Als463, I don't know what the campus culture is like at Georgia State. Maybe Greek life is the dominant social force there and a person would have to be a hermit not to have some passing awareness of how Greek life works and what it means, and I agree with you that there are several other holes in this story. Still, I can tell you as someone who attended what I think is a typical public university, with a typical size Greek system and a typical percentage of the student body involved that I wouldn't have had a clue how Greeks viewed their letters, whether or not they were important to them, or how they differed from any other campus club and/or organization.

I had some friendly aquaintances that were Greek, but I couldn't have told you at the time what chapter they were in or whether or not it meant anything to them - never came up in our casual conversation. I had a general awareness of where our Greek row (or block) was located and I knew where the two houses they used to film "Animal House" were at because that was an orientation requirement (LOL). That was the sum total of what I and any of my friends knew about Greek life or, frankly, cared to know at the time.

In addition (and this may be a regional thing), I met many people after college who were in fraternities and sororities in college; I can tell you that most, not all, didn't take it any more seriously than I took my college activites. To them, it was strictly something they did as a way to make friends and have some fun while they were in school. On that basis I can understand why it might not occur to the mom that some people would find this offensive. That some people would find it freakin' weird - okay, that should have occured to her.

GSU is a commuter campus heavy on the nontraditional student smack dab in the middle of Atlanta, so it's possible to attend there and not be aware of the usual things with which traditional students at traditional campi would be familiar. There are NPC sororities on their campus.

I'm also fairly certain their English department teaches students not make words plural by adding apostrophe s.

See, I always associated many of the schools down south with being aware of Greek life. I guess that's my mistake. I was thrown off by the fact it was in Atlanta. What do you mean about the department teaching not to make words plural by adding apostrophe s? I mean, did I write something like that or did she?

She did. I went back and pulled her post to find it for you.

There were other issues in that post that I found glaring from someone claiming to be a professional writer, but I'm positively allergic to making a word plural by adding apostrophe s.

Wow. I go skiing for one day and see what I almost missed?

My family was large. We had six boys and one girl (me). While it was testosterone all the time, I never needed extra time with mother. When I wanted something from her, or was sick of all the boys, we could go off and do something, often it was volunteering or gardening. Being an alumna of a sorority, I would have found it weird to have my mother make fake sorority or a club just for the two of us. I actually think it would have hurt our bond instead of strengthen it. It would have seemed almost smothering to me. Instead, encourage your daughter to be involved and to do well in school. There are many resources for you to see what Greek Life is all about and what it means to be in a sorority. That way, if and when your daughter goes to college and if and when she wants to go through recruitment you are prepared and can encourage her the best way you can with all the knowledge you have.

All of this is very much contingent on why she has chosen to home school her kids. There are quite a few valid reasons - remote location, lousy local public school system and can't afford private, very transient lifestyle, unusually bright kid who you want to keep on target. And then there's the so religious that you can't possibly put your children in satan's mighty grip by having them be in public and god forbid meet any of satan's followers, i.e. the rest of the world. I've known kids in a couple of these scenarios. Some survived and some, god help them, they're ruined for life.

If I were to hazard a guess, this situation is the latter, and she thought she'd start a sorority of 2 to appease the daughter who's starting to get itchy about this lifestyle. And if I'm right, no suggestions of Girl Scouts, Rainbow Girls, Camp Fire Girls, Indian Guides (are they still around?), club sports, camp, are all a waste of breath.

You posted exactly what I was thinking!

Maybe they could form a sorority with the Duggar girls?

At least they'd have sufficient numbers. :D

They could be the Kappa Epsilon Alpha Sorority (aka KEA: Keep Everyone Away)

Yes, but that's the father-son group. The father-daughter group is Indian Princesses, at least around here.

if the OP really feels her daughter needs more female interaction and she is too busy to provide it there is always *gasp* public school.

if sororities were meant for children then they would have been created for children.

i also find this really disturbing.... if you feel the need to create and exclusive 'club' for you and your child to bond then your parenting skills leave something to be desired. (I am not a parent, but i have excellent parents and am working towards a career in mental health/social work)