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?

_________ of the Year - NOT!

I was pondering all the things I did this week that would disqualify me from my usual Mother of the Year Award. I thought to make me feel better I would like to hear all your failures. I didn't want to limit it to just mothers though. I would like to hear shortcomings in all areas.

So tell me why you are NOT going to be ______________ of the Year - at least according to this weeks performance. Maybe you are not going to be Exercise Queen of the Year, or Employee of the Year, Gardener, Coach.....the list goes on and on.

Since we all need to feel better about our failures I thought I would turn this into a link-up, a linky, a parade., a whachamacalit. I am new...give me a break.

So record your failures and then link up.

Here is why I am NOT going to be Mother of the Year

1. I took Saigie to the doctor and she needed an antibiotic which I forgot to pick up from the pharmacy for two days.

2. I spent all my allowance on these cool shoes instead of on the kids this week. (Hey. It is MY allowance.)

3. An entire child was lost under the laundry I didn't do this week. For days.

4. I took Tayte for a walk in the stroller and when he wanted to the opposite direction (farther from home) I told him we could not go that way. Of course he said, "And whhhyyyyy nooooot?" and I replied. "There are monsters that way." (He is not scared of monsters...even I would not have said that if he were.

5. At this very moment Shaye Baby is eating Cheerios off of the floor and I am not even trying to stop her.

Ok. Your turn. (This Link up thingy will begin working at midnight tonight (I hope) I am going to go ahead and post this so you will have time to think.)

I don't have a button, but if you wouldn't mind linking back to my blog that would be cool.