Alright, so maybe I’m just getting a little tired. But I have six children in school, and I’m starting to feel like I have more homework than they do. Every weekday my children bound in the door, unload their backpacks, and the paperwork starts piling up. “Mom, I need a consent form for internet use.” “Mom, I need you to sign my field trip permission slip.” “Mom, you need to initial my day planner.” “You’re supposed to read this note from the principal.” “It’s picture day tomorrow and I need a check.” “Mom, I’ve got a ten dollar lab fee due.”
Then I have to peruse four or five letters to parents which are sent home from each child’s teacher. If you multiply those papers by six, that’s a novella’s worth of reading material.
And when I’ve finished that portion of my “homework,” my internet-search assignments begin. “Mom, I’m supposed to ask you when the state tax commission first assembled in our state. I need you to look up the date.”
“You’re supposed to ask me… what?”
And then, “Mom, I’m doing a timeline for world history. When was the Great Wall of China built? When did we first land on the moon? When was the fall of the Roman Empire? When did King Tutankhamen rule Egypt?”
“Errrr…aren’t those dates in your textbook?”
“We’re supposed to ask you to look them up on the internet.”
“I’m supposed to do it?”
“Well, they don’t want us using the internet without a parent. So they said to ask you to look up the dates.”
“What are they…nuts?”
“Oh, Mom…you’re also supposed to write a report about three important events in history that have happened in your lifetime. They want all the parents to do it, and we’ll read them out loud in class.”
I’ve decided I’m going to buy myself a backpack to carry around all these papers. And I’ll need some good number two pencils and ballpoint pens for my signatures and consent forms. Perhaps some folders to sort and arrange all the notes home would be a good idea. And heck, while I’m at it, I might as well enroll at the school. That would give me better access to all the teachers giving me these assignments. I hope I can still fit into the seats.
I would write more, but I’ve got to finish my homework.
Kristyn Crow is the author of this blog. Visit her website by clicking here. Some links on this blog may have been generated by outside sources are not necessarily endorsed by Kristyn Crow.