Homeschool Socialization

We've all heard it. The first thing people say when they hear you homeschool: "But what about socialization?" Forget academics and morality, this socialization thing can really get naysayers going. It used to really irritate me. Sometimes I'd feel the need to "educate" people about their flawed thinking. Now, with a few years under my belt, I either roll my eyes, or laugh hysterically.
Today we met up with a group of fellow homeschoolers. This was our first day with this group. My kids knew a few of the children, but not many. It was here that the socialization problem really became evident. My "tweener" daughter approached a group of girls around her age. They all knew each other. But something was terribly wrong with these girls. They didn't seem to know they were supposed to ignore the new girl, and make her feel like an outsider. Instead they introduced themselves and happily let her join their group. Very disturbing, indeed. During a scavenger hunt, my son was paired with a boy almost twice his age. Someone forgot to tell the older boy that he was supposed to whine and complain about this travesty. Instead they ran off searching for their items. They made a great team! During a snack, my 4 year old plopped herself down in a group of tweener girls. Rather than telling her to "get lost", or ignoring her, the girls treated her like one of the gang, engaging her in conversation. Don't even get me started on how the teen girls were dressed. Not a thong or belly in sight. Despite being fully dressed, they had an air of confidence and contentment that was unusual. Over and over again I saw these disturbing scenes: older children helping younger children, kids treating each other and adults with respect, (gasp!) children being "includers" rather than "excluders". No whining, either! Yes, the whole thing was very unlike anything you would see in a school setting. You could see that these poor homeschool kids were truly being deprived of "normal" socialization. There were no cliques, no cool kids, no geeks, no rich kids, no poor kids...They didn't seem to know they were supposed to exclude certain kids, berate those that were different, and treat adults with disdain. If this is allowed to continue, these innocent children are in danger of growing into well-adjusted, caring, respectful adults. How will they ever function in society??