When a child comes home from school with a massive bundle of homework, it’s hard for a parent not to think, “When am I going to find time to do this?”
On paper, we know that our children’s homework is meant to be for them, but, in practice, it doesn’t always end up that way. Part of the reason we get so frustrated about the amount of homework our children get is that we know we’re going to be the ones who end up doing it.
Nearly half of all parents have done homework assignments for their kids. It’s not uncommon for a parent to scrape together a volcano for a science project and slap little Timmy’s name on it, or to fill out a few math questions your child just doesn’t have time to get through.
Even if we don’t do our kids’ homework for them, most parents believe that we need to help out. We want, after all, for our children to succeed, and what’s going to give them a better chance than an involved parent?
In theory, all of this makes sense, but, in practice, it doesn’t actually work out. Studies show that the more involved a parent is, the worse the child does.
If you want your child to do really well on their homework, the best thing you can do is back off.
