my 13 year old won't show me her english essays anymore. says i mark them

teal_gecko_213728 Oct 2026

younger one's in class 8. she used to bring me her english compositions before handing them in, and sometime in the last few months she stopped. asked her about it last night and she said, quite calmly, that i don't read them, i mark them. she's not wrong. i teach languages, and i read everything with a pen in my hand even when i mean not to. her elder sister did the same thing at about this age and just quietly stopped asking. i don't quite know what the question is. maybe whether other parents who do this for work have managed to switch it off at home, or whether you just let them take it to someone else.

2 comments

saffron_bookmark_502528 Oct 2026
my partner teaches and our 11 year old has started saying the same. what's helped a bit is he reads it once out loud to her and says one thing he liked. nothing else unless she asks
mint_notebook_728628 Oct 2026
Not a teacher, but I do design reviews all day and my 13 year old said almost the same about his science project. 'You're reviewing it, Nanna.' I've started asking him what he wants me to look at before I read anything. Some days the answer is 'nothing, just tell me if it's boring'. Still working on it.