On one of the email lists I'm on someone posted the question today of:

 "I was wondering if any of you ladies homeschooled for the reason
of simply needing a purpose for you OWN life."

My reply to this was:

I can't say I'm homeschooling BECAUSE I need personal fulfillment.

But yes, that is one of the perks of homeschooling. I think anyone would be
lying if they said they do NOT like it when strangers comment on "how well
behaved" or "how intelligent speaking" your child is; or "what a good thing you're doing for your child", etc. Even more so when family members say things like that.
Personally, I know I've gotten more statments of "proud of you" from my own
father in the last 5 years we've been homeschooling than I ever recall
getting as a child growing up. Not to say I wasn't a source of pride for him
as a child, I'm sure I was... I just don't recall a lot of expression of it
by him. My mother, has always been encouraging and proud, that continues today with our homeschooling. And I've seen, within both of my parents, a growing understanding of "what exactly it is we're doing here." LOL.

Furthermore, homeschooling feeds MY own NEED for self study. I'm not
currently at a time in my life that I feel I can take college coursework
again, but definitely plan to once again in the future. (CLEPing is certainly on the not too distant horizon though.) In the meantime, to read up on things, learn new things, and just plain ol' relearn side by side with my daughter, that does make me feel good.

Does that all make sense? Do I do it BECAUSE I need to feed some emptiness
inside me? No. But it is nice to have the added personal benefits that I've
written about. Not to mention having the CLOSE times with my daughter. Those
are priceless. I'm SOOOO blessed to have been there EVERY MINUTE of her
learning to read. I will never forget the moment all her hard work FINALLY
paid off and in an INSTANT her fluency was there. Truly remarkable. It would
have been lost to a mob of classmates had she been in a school. There are
many other occasions that I've felt truly blessed for being on hand to
witness, but that's just one of them.