Here is an informative email about homework and single families from a 4BC listener. Chris is a grandparent who, along with her husband, supports her daughter and her grand-daughters manage homework and family life now that her daughter is a single mum and works almost full time.
Chris wrote this email to Greg Cary, from the Greg Cary Morning Show on 4BC, after listening to Sherrin from Fruition in one her regular weekly segments: 10:45 am on Tuesdays – 1116 AM - broadcast throughout Queensland – Monday to Friday.
From listener Chris:
Hi Greg,
I have been listening to the homework debate with interest. No one has mentioned the plight of single parent families where mostly the children are with mum. She has to work obviously to provide for the children so in these households there is only one parent to do everything.
Here is an example of what happens in our family. My daughter's husband left after 12 years of marriage. They had two children. The two children live with my daughter who is the primary carer and they stay with their father each fortnight for 3 nights.
My daughter is now working almost full time to be able to support her children. She previously worked part time. My husband and I - her parents - help her and our grand children whenever they need us. We collect girls from school some afternoons and stay with them until my daughter gets home and do many more tasks. One is helping with homework. My daughter as well as my husband and I supervise the childrens' homework and are there if they need a hand.
However, homework does take up a huge amount of time, when you consider single parent families.My daughter has to come home and do all the things that need to happen but without the help of the father in the home.
The weekend the children visit their father is a nightmare as he doesn't do homework with them. They go to him after school on Thursday and come home on Sunday each fortnight. They get their homework on a Tuesday for the week and this has to be handed in on the following Monday. They therefore have to do it all on Tuesday and Wednesday which is impossible.
I am just listening to Sherrin and she is spot on - homework in my day was to reinforce what we learnt at school that day - these days it is a mixture of anything. The teachers are very understanding but the children want to do their homework - they don't want to be different from the others. It just puts huge pressure on families, especially single parent families.
My grandchildren have one extra curricula activity each during the year so they are not overloaded.
They participate in sport and music also at school which takes up more time to practice. They both love school and have a great mum who juggles her work time to be able to attend things at school also.
In this day and age sadly with many marriage break downs, schools need to be aware that one parent, usually mum, is carrying the load by herself. My grandchildren attend an excellent school [Catholic Education] who do care but doing it as a single parent is still difficult sometimes.
It's also a load on grandparents who I think are the silent majority these days. They are carrying quite a load to help their children whether married or single so that they can work to be able to afford to live.
Sorry if I have rambled a bit Greg - Sherrin is great - she always makes so much sense. Let's have a reasonable amount of homework for their ages and let is mirror what they learn during that week. We have her (Sherrin’s) book and it's great!
Regards,
Chris
This article discusses the homework debate and gives some helpful homework tips you might find useful.