couples

"I got in trouble for not finishing my son's homework. Seriously."

The school year has barely begun and already I’ve been reprimanded by my son’s teacher for not finishing his homework. At first I felt embarrassed, then I got mad. Here’s how the dramatic events unfolded…

It was a normal, sunny, Thursday afternoon. I’d had a good day and was looking forward to my boys getting home from school. The bus dropped them off and my youngest Giovanni ran up to give me a hug. Philip stomped right past me, straight into his room and slammed the door.

It’s always tricky to know when to ask what’s wrong when a school-aged child is upset. Maybe he doesn’t want to talk about it. I gave him a few minutes then tentatively knocked.

“I had the worst day mum, the worst,” he said.

"Why," I asked, thinking his friends had upset him or there had been a mix up with his lunch order.

"We were meant to have read the whole book for reading group , mum. I told her it was your fault that we hadn't and she didn't believe me."

Bugger.

Let me explain....

This year Philip is in grade 4 and already we've been slammed with a huge amount of homework.

Philip has his usual spelling words which are meant to be completed and spell-tested each night. He has computer activities to complete and one or two larger activities that are due each Friday. In addition to this, Philip is given a book to read every night except he has to read it to me and we then need to discuss the book in detail so he can improve his comprehension.

By the time I get my younger children to bed, clean up after dinner and even start to clean my train-wreck of a house I am exhausted. Apparently that's when I'm meant to be doing this activity with him each night, just in case his reading group discusses it the next day.

ADVERTISEMENT

Now, here's the trick. Instead of telling us which day he will be discussing his book, we have to read it every night, just in case. Hello, torture.

"They do Mum," he said.

"It will be fine. If you discuss it in group tomorrow just discuss the parts we've read," I said.

Mummy-fail.

I'm going to let you in on a bit of a secret... I'm going to tell you I RESENT THE AMOUNT OF HOMEWORK MY CHILDREN ARE EXPECTED TO DO EACH DAY.

Don't get me wrong. I love to read with Philip. I love discussing books, movies, life, but when it suits us. I resent we are forced to do this. As far as I'm concerned, these are the sorts of activities I send him to school to do. If Philip and I had our way, we'd relax after dinner. We'd put the kids to bed then sit down with cups of tea and watch My Kitchen Rules together. It's our favourite thing to do.

Philip said he'd gotten into trouble. He said his teacher didn't believe it was my fault and forced him to miss lunch and read the book instead. Then he had no time to play. That afternoon I opened Philip's school diary and read the terse note written to me by his teach, asking that I have Philip ready for his reading group the following week, so that's what we've been doing. I only fell asleep for the last few minutes of it twice, so I'm quite proud of myself. Do I get a smilie stamp?

Now that I have two children in school the homework obligation has increased. I'm not a bad mother for not wanting to do homework every single night, am I? I'm working every day. I'm exhausted. And I feel it encroaches on family time.

Do school kids get too much homework? How do you get through it all?