You must be so patient

Homeschoolers raise your hand if you ever hear these words, "I could never homeschool.  You must be so patient"  Now keep your hands up if you are really THAT patient.  I saw those hands go down.  When people say that to me I always say, "Well you know that's a myth we homeschoolers like to keep alive b/c it makes us look good"  It generally gets a laugh and I follow it with the truth. There is no way I could ever be as patient as they are to have to follow someone else's rules about how my kid should and must be learning, socializing, waking up, eating for lunch and whether or not my kid is at "grade level"

I don't think it takes any more patience to homeschool your kids than is needed to raise them.    So that is not to say the job is without effort just that effort is only equal to having kids anyway.
I find the stressors of homeschooling to be only about parenting woes and I am glad that it isn't exacerbated by someoone else putting pressure on me and my kids to be at some arbitrary level  they deem appropriate.
The number one "issue" that I hear over and over in my homeschool circles is trying to make time to teach the older one when the little one is underfoot.  Sharing comes up and even bossiness of siblings;  things that are just part of the whole parenting package anyway.
 Mostly, we are happy to go slowly to help a struggling kid learn to spell and we are happy to challenge the quick study with frequent trips to the library or more math puzzles.
Better Late Than Early: A New Approach to Your Child's Education


Patience is required when stuck in traffic on your way to meet friends to see the Statue liberty and more patience is needed when it turns out you are never gonna get there.  However , a report on the Statue Liberty will not be "late" and no one is going to fail the test on what is written at the base.
As homeschoolers we only require as much patience as is needed to meet  the day to day life existence but rarely do we need to muster up strngth to hear someone else tell us our kids aren't applying themselves.
We get to choose and that is truly the blessing of the whole thing.