35 Completely Normal Thoughts Parents Have While Helping Their Kid With Homework

By Alessia Santoro

Published on 6/14/2016 at 8:31 AM

NBC
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It happens every school night — two minutes into homework time, your grade schooler hooks you in with the "Can you help me?" line. It's not that you don't want to help, but you know that you can't do their work for them or they'll never learn. And then there are the smaller details, like the fact that you can never do the Common Core problems that circulate the internet, you always turn off Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? because the questions are too hard, and the most math you've done since high school is every night when you calculate the number of hours left until you get to put the kids to sleep.

If you've ever helped a grade schooler do their homework, these are 35 of the thoughts you probably had along the way.

  1. All right, what have we got here?
  2. Oh, I can do math, I was always good at it.
  3. Wait a second . . .
  4. Homework did not look like this when I was a kid.
  5. Wow, my math is rusty.
  6. What the heck is that weird symbol next to the numbers?
  7. Did math change?
  8. Maybe I should start playing some of those brain teaser games.
  9. Gosh, this is confusing.
  10. Is this a high school textbook?!
  11. Of course I know how to multiply those two numbers.
  12. Hmm, you carry the one, right?
  13. Can I plug this problem into Google?
  14. How do I stall her so she doesn't think I'm inept?
  15. What does she mean she also has English, social studies, and science homework after this?
  16. This seems like more homework than I had in college.
  17. Yeah, this is definitely more homework than I had in college.
  18. At least this math is almost finished.
  19. Ugh, this worksheet is double-sided.
  20. Maybe she wrote down the wrong assignments — let me check the website.
  21. Nope, she was right.
  22. This is insane.
  23. I don't even understand the directions for this section.
  24. Can I read?
  25. What's happening to me?
  26. Why am I more stressed than my kid is?
  27. Her teacher must be playing a joke on me.
  28. Yes, an April Fools' joke.
  29. I know it's not April, just go with it.
  30. I should give my kid way more credit — this stuff is no joke.
  31. If this is grade school homework, I'm not going to make it through the high school years.
  32. Maybe I need a tutor.
  33. I just had to ask my kid to help me figure this part out — I'm hopeless.
  34. We've come full circle with the whole "help me" thing now.
  35. Hey, wait — if you can explain it to me, then why can't you do this on your own?!
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