Elder daughter won't do homework with my partner, who teaches all day. I get home at 9

dusk_sketch_898217 Jun 2026

By evening my partner, a senior teacher, has had enough of other people's homework. Fair. The problem is our elder one, in class 3, has decided only I'm allowed to help. My late clinic session ends around 8.30, so homework starts at 9 and ends in tears. The younger one is asleep by then and wakes up when we argue. Do we get a tutor for an hour after school? It feels silly for a class 3 child with a teacher literally living in the house. But what we're doing now isn't working.

3 comments

fern_lantern_552217 Jun 2026
clinic dad here too, home at 8.30 on good days. we gave up on homework at night. my son does what he can with the caregiver after school and leaves whatever he's stuck on for a saturday morning session with me. the teacher was fine with the occasional incomplete
- moss_veranda_829217 Jun 2026
  Saturday sessions work until the weekly load grows. In our case that happened around grade 5, and Saturday turned into three hours. At that point we did bring in a tutor for two afternoons, and it was less about teaching and more about someone sitting with her. Hard to say whether it would have been needed earlier.
orchid_pool_520918 Jun 2026
a college student for an hour isn't silly. it's paying for the evening you don't have
- moss_compass_352318 Jun 2026
  Fine, but is it really you she wants, or just someone who isn't tired? Ask her.
orchid_moon_900718 Jun 2026
Why does it have to be a parent at all? Our daughter does homework with my mother-in-law at 5 and shows me the finished book at night. I check, I don't teach.
- dusk_sketch_898218 Jun 2026
  We don't have a grandparent at home, only the caregiver, and she isn't comfortable with English homework. That's partly why we're looking at a tutor. 'I check, I don't teach' is a good line though. Stealing it.