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An angry mum has gone on a rant over parents of children from her four-year-old son’s class hijacking their homework projects.

Sarah Thompson from Northern Ireland recorded a message to the parents of her little boy’s classmates on Facebook – condemning them for doing their kids homework.

The 37-year-old mother of three makes mention of a recent project where kids had to build their own houses. She claims her little boy Noah spent a week working on his house with materials he found around the home.

“My problem is this homework is for the children,” she says.

“If the kids did make them [the houses] they have got some serious careers ahead of them – I would say in architecture. That homework is for the child. It is not for the parents.”

Ms Thompson says there’s no part in the homework book that “it’s the parents’ responsibility to sit down and glue it all together and come up with the idea, and give it so many stories, give it an air vent for the oven”.

“I know what a four slash five [year old’s] house should look like,” she says.

“And some of them ‘aint rockin’.”

Ms Thompson says what broke her heart is how her son felt after he compared his project to theirs.

“He spent all week perfecting his design and construction as only a four-year-old can and he was delighted with this work,” she said.

“When Noah took his house project into school he was devastated because of a number of the other kids’ projects where like something from Grand Designs.

“Before he went into class he thought his homework was great and he was delighted. But on reflection after seeing other homeworks he thought his was rubbish.”

The video has received more than 20,000 views. Watch her message HERE.

One parent pointed out that it seems to becoming a competition between parents to see who could have the best project.

In this case I can understand what she means if the houses are quite obviously not designed to a four year old standard.

I have fond memories of my mum helping out with some school projects. But she certainly didn’t take control and lead the way.

Do you agree with this mums message?

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  • totally agree – homework should be done by the child – you can sit with them and help hold things while the glue dries or help with a solution if they have a problem but to sit down and physically complete something that teachers will know a child of 4 or 5 didn’t complete is just shameful – I hope that little Noah was recognised and rewarded for being one of the only kids that did his homework himself and I hope his mother shows him the benefits of doing things himself rather than relying on someone else to do it for him – a great life lesson for youngsters I believe.

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  • I know a primary school age girl who had severe learning difficulties and was in special classes part of the time. She was given the same big assignments to do as the children who had no problems. Her Mum didn’t do it for her but had to help her find the information she needed. The assignments became a weekend routine. This was in addition to listening to her reading and spelling every night. By the time they were completed, the girl was too tired to do any of her assignment the same night.

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  • She definitely has a point! I have no issues at sll with parents helping. But helping is saying “why don’t you glue it instead of staple it”. Not building it for them.

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  • Yep, kids should do their own homework.

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  • I do agree,parents can help a touch but it is up to the children to complete their own work.

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  • Kids have to learn and believe in what they can do. If parents do the homework for them, in my idea this also gives the idea that kids aren’t able. And there could be problems of self-esteem in the future. Completely agree with this mum.

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  • I agree with her… let your child do the work, as parents it’s your job to encourage, support and help, not take over. I often was the designated Sellotape holder, and glue helper as my husband is a bit of a perfectionist & couldn’t cope with the 4 year old design & construction skills but as she’s got older and more accomplished he now is the preferred project assistant & Ive been relegated to the sidelines … lol

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  • The point is the homework is for the kids not the parent!

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  • I think the parent needs to live a little. I help my children in their homework when they need me. my son who has learning difficulties, I help him a lot. Wither his work is good enough or not, I always praise them what good work they have done.
    I only have memories of my next door neighbour helping me with my magpie assignment that I did in grade 6. He died not long after.
    It doesn’t hurt to help a child unless the child ask for help. We parents know where we can stop helping without overstepping the line.

    Reply

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