The parents who do all their children's homework
One in six of us admit to doing our kids' schoolwork for them
One in six of us are doing all our children's homework – and 20% of us feel teachers judge us by our children's work.
Those are the findings of a new survey of 2000 parents with children of primary and secondary-school age.
Nearly two-thirds of parents surveyed, for the educational tradeshow Bett, said they help their children with their work – with 10% saying it's the only way to stop tantrums and a general homework-related sulks.
And, even though a quarter of us say the work set is sometimes too hard (and two-thirds of us admit there are times it's so difficult, we couldn't help if we wanted to), an intrepid – and perhaps a tad over-controlling – one in six of us get in there, take over and do all the work ourselves.
However much we 'help', though, it seems what really counts is what the teacher thinks: 42% of parents said it gives them a thrill when their children get high marks for homework they have helped with, and nearly a fifth of us think our child's teacher judges us on the quality of our child's work.
So, what kind of homework parent are you? Do you expect your child just to get on with it? Or do you stand over them until it's done? Or are you one of the those who jump and do it for them?
Please do leave a comment below – and tell us what happens in your house. We promise to mark your answers fairly!
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Authors
Helen is author of the classic advice book Parenting for Dummies and a mum of 3. Before joining MadeForMums, she was Head of Community at Mumsnet and also the Consumer Editor of Mother & Baby.
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