The debate about homework has long raged, but one mum says the amount of after-school tasks her five-year-old is expected to do has given him anxiety, and she is ‘done’.
US-based mum Cayley shared a video on TikTok, explaining that she recently found out parents are able to ‘opt out’ of homework for their children.
“I didn’t know that until recently,” Cayley explained.
“I sent my son’s kindergarten teacher a cutesy little email saying, ‘I’m sorry. Based on the stress, mental, physical anxiety it’s causing my kid, we are done,’ ” she said.
@cayleyxox I hope it inspires more parents to do it for their children ❤️ #momsoftiktok ♬ original sound – cayleyxo
Cayley revealed her five-year-old had been given a packet of homework for the month of August, which consisted of about 15 double-sided pages. The frustrated mum says she’s been trying to do the homework with her son, but it’s causing him ‘so much mental stress.
“I feel so guilty for this. This morning we were sitting down and I told him you can’t even watch a show this morning, you can’t do anything, it’s going to be radio silence until you sit here and eat your breakfast and finish at least one or two pages of this. She said he started crying, which led Cayley to start crying.
“It was an emotional mess. I felt so guilty dropping him off at school,” she said. “He didn’t want to be there. For the last two weeks, he told me he doesn’t even like school and doesn’t want to be there anymore, which hurts my mama heart because you’re five. The only thing you should be worrying about is learning and what time snack time is.”
Cayley’s video, which has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, was applauded by parents, who were shocked that five-year-old were being given homework.
“It’s crazy to me how different each country is. My son is in grade five and he hasn’t ever gotten homework, outside of ‘family’ related homework (think the ‘getting to know you’ pages).”
Even teachers were supportive of the mum opting out of homework for her son.
“So from a teacher perspective, that is way too much to do; however, l am a teacher, and do individual skills for kids to practice at home based on the child’s needs. We do a ton of hands on skills, but we are also teaching kids how to write first and last names, cutting skills, how to glue, how to hold a pencil and crayon, how to sit correctly, how to use the bathroom, how to hold a book, the difference between snacks in their lunchboxes and lunch in their lunchboxes and tons more things. This takes a good 2 months. Ask your teacher for more individual skills your child needs to work on. That’s a win/win for parent and student.”
Cayley has updated the situation with the teacher’s response, and it wasn’t what she was expecting.
The teacher said she’s never received any similar emails from other parents, and didn’t think she was giving out ‘that much work’.
Take a look at how the conversation went in the video below.
@cayleyxox Replying to @Austyn #momsoftiktok #momshelpingmoms ♬ original sound – cayleyxo
What do you think? Does your child have homework and what grade are they in? Let us know in the comments below.
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Ellen replied
- 14 Sep 2024 , 7:19 am
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Ellen replied
- 16 Sep 2024 , 7:40 am
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