Homework-Sometimes It’s Just Easier To Do It Myself
I Know, I know. Helping With The Project Is Better Than Doing The Project For Them.
My kids have never really been big on asking for help with homework. They are usually self-sufficient. So, when they do ask for help, my wife and I sometimes go overboard in helping them. My son has a major history project that’s due this week. We could have easily allowed him to build himself a massive structure that looked nothing like what he was supposed to build. He probably would have gotten a decent grade on it too. But he asked for help.
Help in my family usually consists of one (or both) of the parents saying “move aside and let me do this for you.” In fact, there were many times this last weekend when my son was standing around watching us do his project for him. He actually said several times, “what can I do?” He may have even mumbled “Okay, I can get it from here.” But it was too late. My wife and I had already started building his project, and we could no longer allow him to call it his own. No, we insisted that we must finish the project so we could gloat that we were the ones who actually got the good grade on the project, not him.
You see, parents like to live vicariously through their children. Whether it’s in sports (I’m still holding out hope that my son who doesn’t play baseball will somehow become a professional baseball player like I always dreamed), academics, or some other aspect of their lives. We want to see our kids do well in every aspect of their lives. Sometimes we go overboard in helping them succeed.
I know the amount of work we did on his project last weekend was not right. However, I’m convinced that teachers assign these types of projects so the parents can have something to do over long holiday weekends. Sometimes, it’s just easier to do it yourself.
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Related articles
- Why we’re getting the homework question wrong – The Answer Sheet – The Washington Post (ssadisabilityandyou.wordpress.com)
- Parents: Hands Off the Homework (parenting.blogs.nytimes.com)
- The Homework Problem (resurrectedwriter.wordpress.com)
- Help With Homework, Hurt Your Child (wired.com)
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