Outsourcing The Home

Clarification…

In the same way that I do not address unbelievers in my writings (because “they know not what they do”), in this article I am not addressing the “silkie” community.

This one is for the HOME community. The folks that claim to be homegrowers, homemakers, homeschoolers, and homesteaders…

A few years ago, back when I was still hanging on by a thread to social media, and back when the dust from the homesteading tsunami of 2020 had begun to settle, something lay apparent in the rubble…while a small percentage of the newer homesteaders, homemakers, and farmers made their new lifestyles a permanent choice, many others looked around, threw up their hands, and gave up. They ran back to their old lives. I wrote about this a few years ago in the article, “I’m Not Fit For This…”

Although I am not on social media anymore, I am seeing those same influencers pouring over to this platform, doing the same type of influencing.

Promoting their products, their brand image, their new ventures…

Them, them, them.

Even further, they’re making sappy post that start with, “Why I’m No Longer…”, growing my own food, homeschooling my children, cooking food from scratch, etc.

They’re hiring others to do all their work so they can focus on their dreams as individuals. And they’re encouraging a whole community of women to outsource their work as well. Just take a look at the comments section…

“So many moms are homeschooling their kids because they think it’s better than regular school and some kids really need more!” -Amy

What more do “some kids” need exactly? We don’t have to send them to public school because math is starting to get hard for us to teach or the child isn’t focusing at home. Shift, adjust, rise up, mama.

“I’ve been homeschooling for the last 2 years and I feel like it’s started to drift from being the best fit for our family… I’m a ranching mama, trying to run a successful online business… creating content. Doing all this plus homeschooling has taken its toll on me…” -Britney

Me, me, me.

“I really needed this podcast today. I stopped homeschooling this year too, after 7 years.” -(ineligible name)

Why? What happened?

There are more like that, either they didn’t have the time anymore or they give a vague or no explanation.

Recently, I came across a very popular homesteading influencer that announced “after 20 years, I am not planting a food garden this year.” This same influencer announced last year that she was no longer homeschooling her children. She also has a post on why she isn’t cooking everything from scratch anymore. The main parts of her brand, the lifestyle she has claimed to have lived for decades, she has suddenly abandoned to focus on her small business, her content, and her products.

Her, her, her.

My problem isn’t with the influencers. The women that are regularly following these folks are who I have concern for. The women who are being influenced to also give up homemaking, home-cooking, home-growing, homeschooling, and homesteading. Who are being told, it’s okay, it’s hard, it’s okay to just stop, outsource it, pass it off to someone else, time to abandon your post, sis.

Because that’s what’s really behind the fluffy, vague explanations of these influencers and their followers.

Priorities.

We must ask ourselves, what are our priorities?

When we are overwhelmed, we must ask ourselves what’s weighing us down?

It ain’t the homeschooling and gardening. It ain’t the kids and husband. It ain’t the cooking and cleaning.

It’s the me, me, me.

It’s when we choose ourselves over our family.

Keeping a home isn’t overwhelming when you prioritize the most essential needs of your family. When you utilize your time wisely. When you plan and prepare. When you prioritize others before yourself.

When we begin to stretch ourselves outside of our home, that’s when we feel the burden. Following our dreams, self-worship, idleness. The enemy convinces us to outsource our duties in return for our own selfish ambitions.

Don’t be fooled. There is a cost to this outsourcing, sisters.

Don’t give up.

Be encouraged.

We were designed for home.

~Casey