Help Mom! Please Email Homework
Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:53PM EST
See Comments (4)
The debate over whether parents do too much for kids is revisited often at our house. My husband, who grew up in a family of six kids, laments the lack of a closely adhered-to chore chart and marvels at how kids are driven everywhere today.
Working from home, I know I often bail my kids out of semi-tough spots because I can. I dropped off lunch money one day recently for my 7th grader and his saxophone another day. For a disorganized guy at heart, he's done really well this year keeping track of his school work and schedule. But every now and then he lapses, and I worry my taking time out of my work day to run to his aid may be sending the wrong message.
Today, technology made it easy for me to help him out in a way that was never possible when I was in middle school. I got an email from him with lots of exclamation points in the subject line, asking if I could email his essay on steroid use in Major League Baseball. He told me exactly where to find it. It took me a few seconds and hopefully he won't get a missed homework mark for his and my efforts.
Would I rather he remembered the assignment in the first place? Of course. But I like that he knew a quick tech fix for his time-honored dilemma was at his fingertips. Knowing I am on my computer all day, he also knew I'd respond. And I didn't have to drop a thing and drive to the school.
Has technology helped you help your kids without being a hovering parent?
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2 Posted by nolo_8 on Sat Jan 19, 2008 2:04AM EST Report Abuse
I don't think its that bad of a thing. I'm 22 now, but back when I was in 6th grade in 96', I remember my teacher told me to go to the office, and I was so scared, I never went to the office for an unknown reason, and I was surprised to see my mom there with the previous days homework assignment(a paper on ecosystems). She had told me she was cleaning my room and saw the the date for that day on the paper and assumed I had forgotten it, and she brought it to me. I have never forgotten this act of kindness from her, even though it was just worth about 15 points, I still like to think about how lucky I was as a kid to have a parent like that. What I try to do now with important things like a resume etc, is to have a copy of it in my e-mail account that way I can print it out wherever I want, so long as there is a pc with Internet access available.
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3 Posted by eandgtremblay on Sat Jan 19, 2008 1:23PM EST Report Abuse
Once in a while helping them out is probably fine, but if they ever "blame" you for not getting their assignment in and you find yourself constantly reminding them and stressing out about their work- it's time to step back and not do it. A few times where they get the natural consequences of not turning assignments in should cure them. If not- there are other issues to address. E
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4 Posted by dory_devlin on Sun Jan 20, 2008 10:35AM EST Report Abuse
nolo_8: What a great memory to share. Thanks. With three kids, I'm banking on lots of similar memories :) And I'm heartened by your resourceful resume tip. Tech can help us out of lots of jams at any age if we know how to use it.
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1 Posted by sminman2005 on Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:58PM EST Report Abuse
Technology most defintely helped out getting things organized and taken care of. My parents used to e-mail me the things that I needed to take care of. Now that I have an iPhone, I get there list instantly and it is with me at all times. I love having a visual of what I need to get done. Same with school. They have adopted Google Calendar into there system and now I have my iCal and Google Calendar synced together and on my iPhone. I now know when assignments are due and when test are. It's great, I love technology! It's only going to get better too!!