My girls always complain about going to school and would do just about anything to get out of it. But the reality is that there just isn't time for us to homeschool nor do either of us have the teacher mentality.
Forcing your kids to do things they don't want to do is part of them becoming productive adults. Lets face it life is full of stuff we don't want to do. If we all said "I'm not doing anything I don't want to do" then what would ever get done in the world?
I see people who are in the 30's and 40's who constantly decide not to do something they don't want to do. Guess what, they can't keep jobs, they get divorced the second things get hard, they have zero relationship with their kids because it's hard to arrange times that work, and so forth. It's not a path I want for my kids.
As for the "being sick" and staying home. We have a simple rule, NO electronics if you stay home. If you are to sick to go to school then you stay in your room and rest. Amazing how rare my kids are "sick".
Now on the flip side both kids get 2 days per school year to take a day off just because they want to. These are their days to choose when and we typically plan a day out around them. It becomes a day about them and only them.
We also have no issue pulling the kids from school if family is in town or we want to take a vacation. The key is the kids must maintain good grades (that means B's and A's) or we can't do these things as they clearly need every minute of classroom time possible. Keeps them motivated. Plus they get paid for each A from both Grandparents and I give them a reward each report card if they do good.
Clear expectations, simple rules to get rewards, and rewards fitting of effort spent seem to keep our kids just motivated enough not to completely revolt against school. Hope that helps.
You sound so reasonable, and almost psychic about the electronics haha! We did recently pull the electronics away when he stayed home, but he was still happy to just chill with us...maybe if we banished him to his room, but that seems cruel.
As for the world turning because people do what they don't want to do... I'm too much of an idealist. Why can't we find something we love to do. What's the point of life if it's marked with constant unpleasantries until one retires? I know we need many different people that do many different things, and maybe it sounds unrealistic, but my hope is that my children find a way of ease and happiness in their occupational existence.
Not cruel, it's about setting clear rules that avoid rewarding lying. No matter how we twist it when our kids tell us they are sick just to stay home they are lying and then getting away with it. Worse they feel like it's a reward as they are skipping out on something they don't like while getting to do things they do like. Very bad pattern to reinforce IMO.
But no matter how much I love doing my business there are plenty of things I don't love that must be done. Like tomorrow morning I need to be on the road at 5:30am, which will feel like 4:30am due to the stupid time change. I'm a night owl so getting up at what will feel like 3:45am is not even remotely something I love.
If I took the not doing things I don't love then tomorrow never gets started, my kids don't eat, mortgage doesn't get paid, and so forth. Now 1 time wouldn't cause the end of things, but a few days of skipping the things I don't love would quickly lead to financial ruin for my family.
Now this is from someone who picked what I'm doing. Built my own business doing what I want to do. I still have parts of my day each day that I'll never love, or even like, yet must be done.
So yes I do feel it's unrealistic to think that anyone can get by in life by only doing things that they love. It's a great goal to constantly strive for, not the pursuit of only doing things we love but rather to fill our lives with as many things that we love as possible while doing the necessary things in life that allows us to do what we love.