So many kids, I don't know what to do.



Monday, April 11, 2011

Terrible Mom Confessions #84

I don't care about grades.
There I said it.  I really don't. 
It is easy to say that since my kids do decently at school.  It is also easy to say that since The Coach cares monumentally about grades.  (That way I don't have to.)

The more scandalous part of this is that I don't help my kids with homework.  I am a slacker.

Even though I am trying to put a humorous spin on this.  I really do feel bad sometimes.  Don't feel sorry for me though, because I haven't started doing anything differently.

I do better with the older kids.  I have been a secondary level educator for seventeen years now.  I can look at their grades online and generally figure out if they have "got it" or not. I can nag them.

As for Saige.  I do not help her.  She comes in and sits down and does her own homework.  Thank God! Her grades are not stellar.  She is struggling in math.  I could or could not tell you what they are supposed to be learning on any given day.
I don't want to help with homework and here is why.
I think it is stupid.
I don't want to.
I am not blaming the teachers.
I am blaming, "they".

My daughter gets home at 4:00 pm from school.  "They" want her to sit and do another hour of work?  "They" have already cut her recess to fifteen minutes a day and "They" have limited PE to every other day in elementary school. 
Admittedly my daughter is not the fastest homework doer of the world.  She is distracted by things like: screaming siblings, cookies (We ARE related you know.) and air.  (Again, we ARE related.)

I just think her time could be better spent learning to fold laundry or watching the babies so I can take a nap
riding her bike, playing castle at the park with friends, and texting.  (Not really.)

In my mind I know this homework is intended to reinforce lessons learned at school.  I also know the teachers only have a limited amount of time to get a wide variety of curriculum requirements taught.  I only have a limited time at home to teach her other lessons like the joy of walking in the sunny outdoors, how to make cookies.
No.  Everyday at our house is not sunshine and cookies.  I would like there to be the potential though and that potential arises when there is no homework!!  (Mainly though if "they" didn't require homework I would feel much much less like a slacker mom.)

(I wrote this a while back and yesterday I read an excerpt from Tiger Mom.  Now I am thinking I am helping contribute to the Decline of the American Society.   I have decided to balance my lackadaisical attitude out by calling her "Garbage" every once in a while and refusing to let her be in a play.)


Is there an area of parenting you would just rather not deal with?

9 comments:

  1. oy! Is it bad that my kid isn't in school yet, but I already have a theory about homework?

    I'm in your camp... and glad the kiddos are mostly self-motivated :)

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  2. Has recess and PE really been cut back like that?! When I was in elementary school (I feel like an old woman typing that) we had recess three times a day. Two fifteen minute ones and an half hour or so after lunch. We also had PE every single day. I can't imagine being a kid and not getting that break to go outside and play. That would explain why I never see kids outside when we drive by schools during the week. Every time I think about how much school has changed since I was a kid, it *almost* motivates me to homeschool. I've got three kids as of right now though, I just don't think I could do it....

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  3. Oh gosh the homework conundrum. I like that it supposedly instills responsibility but there's such a fine line in it being too darn much. I want the kids to care about their homework but I feel like they shouldnt need tons of help from me on it either.
    I struggle with the healthy-eating front with my kids. It would be so easy to get them each a box of trix and let them go at it. It's a battle I'm so sick of fighting, yet I do. Blech.

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  4. Maybe you should just unschool her! Yay!

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  5. I agree that they give them entirely too much homework these days, but I was one of the weird ones who enjoyed helping them. I figured it was giving my own brain a much needed workout after college.

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  6. I hate homework and I only have to deal with kindergarten homework.

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  7. Today? Every area of parenting. Just one of those days. I've wanted to climb into bed since the minute I got out of it this morning. Completely agree about the homework - it's too much, and in the end is it really helping?

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  8. OMG Heather, yours and my little hooligans can be uneducated citizens together! I hate homeword and report cards. I don't even look at them. I also dont' go to Parent/Teacher interviews. I figure I know what my kid is up to. If there was a real problem, I'm sure those teachers woudl be in a mad hurry to call me and tell me. So glad I'm not alone in the hating homework category! See, we really are meant to be together! Maybe your husband is interested in an extra wife? We could be sister wives...no?...or not...I'm just putting the idea out there :)

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  9. I find it hard to help with homework because they've changed the curriculum so much. I sucked at math when I had to do homework, should I be helping my kids suck too?

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I always like to know someone is listening!