Mom writes an email to daughter's teacher after seeing her stressing over homework

Nowadays, kids' schedules rival those of adults in their busyness. They go to school for 5-6 hours and then attend extra-curricular activities after which they come home and are asked to finish their homework. Feeling the weight of her daughter's homework load, this mom took action by writing an email to the teachers. Bunmi Laditan posted a screenshot of the email she sent on her Facebook page. 

It reads, "Hello Maya's teachers, Maya will be drastically reducing the amount of homework she does this year. She's been very stressed and is starting to have physical symptoms such as chest pain and waking up at 4 am worrying about her school workload." Laditan went on to write that her daughter is not academically behind and "very much enjoys school." She shared that they have consulted with a tutor and a therapist and they have suggested that her workload should be lightened. "Doing 2-3 hours of homework after getting home at 4:30 is leaving little time for her to just be a child and enjoy family time and we'd like to avoid her sinking into a depression over this," wrote the mom. She concluded by saying, "Thank you for understanding, Bunni." 

The mom had posted this post in 2017 and captioned it, "My kid is done with homework. I just sent an email to her school letting her know she's all done. I said 'drastically reduce' but I was trying to be polite because she's finished." She explained that her daughter is in school from 8:15 am to 4 pm every day so why she should be doing 2-3 hours of homework daily? "How does homework until 6:30, then dinner, then an hour to relax (or finish the homework) before bed make any sense at all?" the mom asked. She added that her daughter "loves learning" and reads at least 12 books a year, researches topics she's interested in, is also into painting, and even takes coding classes.

Laditan believes that kids need downtime after school the same way adults do after work. The mom was also contemplating what to do further. "If the school wants to punish her for it, then I guess I'll have to figure out how to homeschool. I'm very nervous about it because although I work from home, I do work. I also have a 3-year-old who only goes to preschool two mornings a week. And a 7-year-old in second grade. I'll have to hire a tutor to help me and will need to find a group of parents doing the same thing, but I have no choice at this point," she shared. "We have some decisions to make. But going forward, this is a homework-free household and I don't care who knows it. My kid needs to be a kid," Laditan said.

She also clarified in the comments that she is not trying to blame the teachers. "They're incredible and I know they have to do things a certain way. This system just isn't working for my family or my child. I can't watch her unravel anymore and be filled with so much stress at age 10," wrote Laditan. 

People could completely resonate with what the mom shared. Joy Wolski commented, "This. This is one of the reasons I'm about to homeschool my 2 kids starting next year. We could be done with school every day in just a few hours and then they can just be KIDS. And I could teach them how to take care of a home. And actually, hang out with them. And I work from home, too, so I'm totally freaked about the idea of trying to work and deal with kids in the house. But I feel like it's just too important to continue on the path they're on. I just don't feel like it's the right path." Emily Lowey Gossett said, "As a fourth-grade teacher and mama, I support this 100%. Over the ten years I've been teaching, every year I've given a little less homework to my students. The more I study it (my own research, plus input from other parents, teachers, and studies like you mentioned from Finland) the more I am convinced homework causes more harm than good." Shannon Skypek wrote, "Amen!! One of the many reasons we homeschool. If you choose to go down that road, there are many, many resources available to you. I'm sure you'll get plenty of similar responses, but feel free to PM if you want to discuss!"