New Survey: 43 Percent of Parents Have Done Their Kids’ Homework

Posted bySara BennettPosted inIn the News, Resources

In a survey conducted by AskKids and released in late August, 43 percent of parents admitted to having done their kids’ homework. According to the Los Angeles Times, here’s what the survey found:

Forty-three percent of parents queried in a survey this month admit to doing their children’s homework at least once to ease the strain. Almost half the dads, 47%, owned up to doing the homework, while 39% of mothers did so.

Kids who hope to persuade (con?) parents into doing homework have a better shot if mom and dad are older. Of parents 18-24, 33% say they’ve done their children’s homework for them, compared with 45% of 25- to 44-year-old parents.

The survey of 778 parents, conducted for the homework resource website Ask Kids, showed that 84% of parents help with homework — more with math and English than with other subjects.

The survey was conducted by Kelton Research using an e-mail invitation and an online survey. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

If parents stopped helping their kids with homework (or doing it for them), teachers would have to stop giving it, or, at the very least, cut back on the amount. It’s a rare elementary school child who can manage homework without a lot of parental involvement and help. Just imagine what would happen if parents got together and stopped asking their children whether they had homework, stopped helping them do it, and stopped making sure that the homework made its way back to school. A little homework disobedience anyone?

287 thoughts on “New Survey: 43 Percent of Parents Have Done Their Kids’ Homework”

  1. This is hard for me to believe. I am in my teens and my parents have never DONE my homework FOR me. They’ve done it WITH me, and they have helped me with it many a time. For that I am grateful. But I know that if I were to try and “con” my parents into doing it, they would probably ground me! I love my parents for helping me and making me do it, instead of doing it for me so that I wouldn’t know how to do the assignment. I love you Mommy and Daddy!

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  2. Kaitlynn, I’m not sure which of us you are addressing. I have never done my daughter’s homework, ever. I don’t play those games.

    Yet I will tell you that some of the most hyper-competitive parents in my daughter’s private school and to a lesser degree her Gifted Talented Center, for all their undying support of the teachers and school, were secretly doing their children’s homework. Anything for that A. I didn’t do that because I don’t care about the A, I care about learning and not promoting learned helplessness.

    Maybe it’s time for the teachers to root this out and stop rewarding and lauding the “perfect” children. Because some of those perfect little gems were bullyers and cheaters, behind the teacher’s back.

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  3. I have done my daughter’s homework for her, in my own handwriting, in pen…to make the point to the teacher. If it comes home and I find out about it (I don’t find out about it unless my daughter says she can’t do it….mostly she works independently and DOES NOT want my help with anything) …it’s usually because it’s not age appropriate or is one of those “fun, family activities”. I don’t take this stuff seriously, or as a learning (teaching)opportunity for anyone. So to calm my child down and spend the least amount of time on it possible, I do it.
    And I’ll do it again.

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  4. PsychMom, I’m with you. I’ve done my kid’s homework, and I’ve done a lot of “expediting” — finding the quickest, most painless way through. I guess that’s a useful skill for the dc.

    Part of the problem for my dd is that she’s a very serious type of kid (hence the anxiety and depression back at public school.) She wants to do well at school, and she knows everyone expects her to. She’s frustrated by assignments where she’s not sure what the teacher is looking for, but she fears she might be scolded if she didn’t guess the teacher’s intentions correctly. She’ll freeze over some issue like “should I list the room’s dimensions in one column or several columns?” and we have to bail her out so she won’t spend all evening on it. (“Just choose one approach, crank it through, be done!”)

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  5. Yeah, and that’s what I’m getting at with my point about age-appropriateness too. If they were old enough and experienced enough, the kid would know what to do. Anytime there’s guesswork involved it means something is missing and there’s a potential for making a mistake. At the adult level, or maybe in the later high school level, I can see a teacher wanting to leave things a bit more open-ended to see what the learner can extrapolate.

    But in Grade 3, it’s learning a skill…basic basic basic. There’s no value in floundering because young kids live in Black and White world, it’s either right or wrong. At that age, being wrong about factual information doesn’t really help you learn anything. 2+2=4, it’s not 4…ish. The teacher is not looking for a creative proof of how it’s actually 5 or 22. The teacher wants to see the 4…so if the child can’t sort out what the equation 2+2 means, the teacher didn’t reach that child on that day. The child either needs to go back to school the next day and get some help from the teacher, or if it’s meant to be a fun family activity, then, in my house, Mom fills them in.

    It took my kid a bit of time to figure out the signs + – X and division…she’s still working on it..she should be. She’s in Grade 3. They have a particular way of teaching arithmetic at her school. I don’t get it. They want me to get it so I can help her at home, but I refuse. If she comes home and tells me I HAVE to help her and it has to be done tomorrow…then I do it. So far I’ve not gotten any messages back.

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  6. i lovvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvve homework!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  7. remember i lovvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvve it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  11. I agree, homework is quite beneficial for the students later on. Although, large quantities of homeworks eprive students, such as I, from sleep. Even though a bunch of rules are made by the school board about the maximum amount of homework a student can have, they are not reinforced very much.

    In regards to the parents doing childrens homework, in my community, that is unheard of. I’m rather appalled by theese statistics. Personally, my parents would aid me if I had difficulty but, actually doing my homework is rather ridiculous.

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  12. You moms and people are crazy about just a bit of homework, jeeez. I’m a freshman in high school now and have been doing all my homework, my parents in fact give me about and average of 30 extra math problems everyday during the week day and about 50-70 math problems during the weekend, as well as numerous reading, writing and biology promblems. I’ve been doing this since 2nd grade, and I don’t have any problems with it. So please don’t think that your kids not doing school given homework is no big deal, it IS a big deal, I finish my school homework as well as my given homework everyday. Plus I don’t get TV from Monday to Thursday as well as video games. On Fridays I’m free to do anything. On Saturdays and Sundays I have to finish my homework first to watch TV, and only about 2 hours each day. I get about 1 hour of video games only, So you moms and dads and whoevers out there complaining, Think again. Everyone needs to be like me if you even plan to complain, even though I don’t have any problem with where I at.

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  13. Hi, i am an international baccalaureate freshman at Wooster high in Nevada. i applied for the program because i really do care about my education. today i stayed home from school because last night i had a mental breakdown and started to hyperventilate because of my loads of homework. i have 4-6 hours of homework a night. why is getting a diploma so hard?? the reason i found this article is because i have to write an essay about educational debates for English class, and mine is the homework debate. my life revolves around homework. i feel as if i’m in a totally different world, a totally different person. i rarely am happy unless my homework is finished and i’m stress-free. at one point, in 8th grade, my mom suggested a counselor or cycologist because i was mentally sick and damaged because of stress. none of that stress would have happened if i had less homework. i plead for help, and even though in k-6th I’ve had straight a’s, i wonder if i’m a baccalaureate dropout, or a high-school dropout for that matter. please fix this craziness with homework. Ive missed so much. my days, even weekends, involve school, homework, sleep. i cant sleep at night anymore. i haven’t gotten sleep in so long. Ive missed family time, i haven’t seen my grandma in so long, and she came to visit. i wasn’t able to spend any time with her. weeks later she died. i couldn’t go to the funeral because i knew i would be too stacked up on homework if a missed even a day of school. i want a family again.help. please.

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  14. I am a College Student, still living at home, and I get yelled at my parents for not being able to go to sleep at 9 or 10 pm. Parents can be really ignorant sometimes because since I am taking 4 classes this semester and sometimes it takes me so long to complete assignments, I can only get a few hours of sleep each night. Plus I am trying to manage my time at the best of my ability. Sometimes school can be hard and in order to put effort, sometimes you may have to take risks like missing recess, not being able to go to the beach with your friends on Saturday afternoon, missing the trip to the Gym, etc. etc. Things won’t be perfect. Same when you hold a career when you are older. You might have to work 14-15 hour shifts depending on how high paying your career is (that is if you are a Neurosurgeon in an ER or a Corporate Attorney at an LA or New York Law Firm). Hard work pays off and has it’s rewards, what can I say.

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  17. I’m a junior in high school and I can’t count the times I’ve had to stay up all night doing homework, then it being bad quality because I was over-tired. My teachers constantly give the class large assignments daily with two days to do them sometimes even right before report cards.Teachers don’t understand the stress that students get from the constant work load. One time I even had to go to my dance class all day after school so I stayed up all night doing as much home work as I could, alas I didn’t finish. When I went to my teacher at the begging of class to apologize i got a 0 on that project ,later in the class the TEACHER announced that they had felt a little sick so they couldn’t mark our tests. But what happend to them, NOTHING. it’s really become such a problem because I can barely fit in my family and sports along with all the homework I get. When I do manage to, all my work and relationships are affected by the constant strain and I’m always tired because either I’m up late trying to do homework or I’m so stressed about school I can’t sleep.
    I’d love to keep talking but I’ve got alot of homework to do and two test to study for.
    Ironic, eh?

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  18. After hard work day parents spend hours a night helping children to do all or part of their homework. It is not an easy task to solve the daily problems and after that look up answers to homework problems. Sometimes homework frustrates not only children but their parents, too! Especially when teacher says that your mother’s answers are wrong. Mums really have a lot of their home chores and sometimes to do their children home works is really too much!

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  19. I think that homework os bad for our health. We have to carry heavy books home and do work when we could be getting active. My brother once came home and we weighed his backpack:10 pounds!

    I also think we should get paid if we get good grades. I mean we HAVE to go to school no matter what, and do work so, technicaly if we aren’t payed,it’s slavery.

    Kids should go on strike and demand fair treatment aat school

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  20. Until there is a complete overhaul of the education system, I think homework is necessary although it may be a pain in the butt for kids and parents including myself. Where my daughter goes to school, the student to teacher ratio is high and not many teachers have the time to teach a class of 24 students and spend quality time helping those in need of help. This is why homework is important. Homework has helped my daughter who is in the 7th grade. At one point she was coming to me every night asking for help with her math homework. I would cringe every time I saw her coming to me with her math book in hand looking frustrated. Because I had forgotten some of the Algebra from 30 years ago, I had to relearn it in like 10 minutes then explained it to her—sometimes several times in different ways—so that she could understand. Anyway, she ended up making an A in math. Without the homework, I honestly think she would have made a C or D. Her struggles with homework alerted me that she needed further help that she obviously wasn’t receiving in the classroom, and I gave that to her the best way I could. Homework may not be the perfect solution but until they find something better then I think homework should stay. So, yes I am a homework advocate until classroom sizes are reduced, students get better teachers and instructions, and better teaching method are put into place which I cannot see happening in the near future being that many schools are being hit with budget cuts in most states. And by the way, parents doing kids homework is counter-productive.

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  25. i’m 11 and i try to be a good student and i am but it requires soooooooooooooo much homework and im not ready to dedicate that much time yet i get soo much homework and im in grade 7.

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  28. HI, i am doing a report on too much homework. I want to share my stories with everyone else here. I am not against homework, because i believe it could help with your subject. But i believe teacher’s hand out homework like it is a simple project for everyone. Of course its easy for teachers to do the subject they teach but i am one of the only students struggling in my Geometry class. We are going through proofs and my teacher doesnt help explain it to my understanding.

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  29. Teachers need to understand we have other project and need sleep. My mom said i couldn’t play spring baseball if i don’t get my grades up so if their is a human out there with any big athourity reading this please help the parents and especially all the students that could use help. Thank you, Alex Lemmer

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  30. stop homework now no one likes it it keeps use up almost all night so stop the homework the kid should get about 1 sheet every 2 weeks but still stop the homework

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  31. I’m in 6th grade.
    I’m certain you all know what an all nighter is??? (Staying up all night to finish work)

    Well because of my homework (I’m not going to say how much :-/)
    I have to pull an all nighter almost every night.

    Worst of all???? I’m in a French school (No I’m not in France) so imagine having your teacher yelling at you in French!!!!

    And they’re yelling at you because???????? OF STINKING HOMEWORK YOU HAVEN”T FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Thanks to Homework.I usually only get 5-6 hours of sleep.And you wonder why we’re failing?

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  32. P.S ^
    I wrote that top comment by the way I
    Anyway , I’m also in band (I play the flute)

    But sometimes in band they have night band , my night band is 5:30-6-30 PM.

    After that I have to wait for two hours at my dads work.
    Then when he’s done , we have to go eat supper ,(Yum subway.)And drive for 20-25 minutes to our house.

    By the time we get to our house it’s 9:00 PM.
    My bedtime is 9:30. And before bed time!?I have to have shower.

    GoodNight…Wait no I have homework!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

    Well , better get ready for detention.(Or a nap in class)

    PLEASE PLEASE, HOMEWORK IS CAUSING GLOBAL WARMING. THINK OF ALL THOSE POOR TREES. STOP HOMEWORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  33. Homework is good because:
    It helps our grades.
    If we do our homework and bring it in on time , we won’t be on our teacher’s (Teachers) bad side.
    Most of us want to go to college, right?

    Homework is bad because:
    It kills trees.
    We don’t get the sleep that we actually need.
    We don’t get to spend time with our family.
    We miss (Or don’t get to try) extra curricular activities.
    Some homework is hard , an our parents may do it for us (Not mine 😀 )

    Anymore bad and good suggestions??????

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  34. Anonymous- Just felt the need to give a slightly negative edge to your pros…

    >> It helps our grades.

    School should be about learning, not about grades. It would be nice if the learning part about homework was more greatly emphasised. Besides, there are other ways to learn other than filling out worksheets or doing whatever projects you are assigned by your teachers. Not everyone learns in the same way 🙂

    >> If we do our homework and bring it in on time , we won’t be on our teacher’s (Teachers) bad side.

    If we didn’t have homework in the first place, this wouldn’t matter.

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  36. I>m in 8th grade and i have an essay and a packet of papers just to do over the weekend. when i go bak toschool, i will the have to do my other homework.

    I getso stressed, it is not worth doing it. therefore i do not do it regurarly

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  37. See all of us kids have to pull all nighters for homework….. EVERYDAY HOMEWORK that’s pathetic maybe a sheet a day but not 40 problems in one class 60 in another and etc. It’s bull

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  38. My 17 yr old son wants to drop out of school. He does well in his classes. His teachers like/some love him. He participates, isn’t disruptive, usually does among the best in his test scores in his classes. He hates homework and has decided not to do it. So despite the fact that he scores well in his test and knows the material he gets D’s because he does not do the homework. His comment, “what’s the point of staying in school? I know the material and get great scores on all my test. Why waste my time on meaningless homework that does nothing to advance my knowledge?”
    I have argued the “playing along with the rules, working within the system.” That’s ridiculous.

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  39. I am a year 11 student (2010) and I do agree that the amount of homework should be lowered. It is affecting my sleep, thinking ability and hygiene. I don’t waste time showering because I have to do homework straight as I get home or otherwise it’d mean no sleep for the night. I have turned into that much of a workaholic that when dinner is served I let it lie there until I’ve finished reading a chapter, or have finished answering the questions on a page. I try to stop myself but I can’t.

    I have lost every single one of my friends and I hate my life because the only thing I have left is my education.

    I want to go onto university. I hate my parents because they said they won’t pay for my university books, which will force me to get a part time job. I’m frightened because I already stay up until 12 to 2 AM finishing homework. With university I’ll probably get more work that is even harder. With a part time job I won’t be able to sleep at all in my life. That means no sleeping for 5 years. I don’t think people can last that long! All I have is my education and it’s being ripped from me.

    I know lack of sleep is affecting my education because I never use to slur my words or feel it was a major task to be able to talk. My teachers are asking if I’m alright because my ability to pay attention is decreasing. I get ‘really cold’ during the day. Even on a hot day. I am unable to take in what the teacher is saying and remember it for at least 20 seconds. I use to be able to remember everything. I use to be quick in tests and assignments back in the day where I had lots of sleep. Everything I do, even simple things seem like such a big task because I’m that tired.

    When I go to university in 2012 I feel like doing my full time course (B.Dental.Surgery 9am – 5pm) then doing a part time job just to show my parents that it’s not possible. I’m staying up until 2am in year 11. So in university that’d mean having no sleep at all? Oh god!

    Well my parents will learn the hard way that they should have payed for my university books, when their son dies due to sleep deprivation. Those last few days staying awake will be so hard. My skin will be pale, I’ll be shivering and weak in the knees. So they definitely know the cause of my death, I’ll write on my stick it’s and stick them on my wall. Saying, “Need sleep!” and “Wish parents payed for university books, so I’d have time to sleep.”

    My parents said this to me when I said that getting a part time job to pay for my education is a bad idea: “Well life is like that, you have to do a million things at once. You should be independent now since you’re 17. You don’t get payed for sitting on your arse you know.” I think they either, don’t realise how late I stay up doing homework or simply don’t care. I do believe I should get a job to support myself, but only when it’s ‘feasible’ to do so. Especially when I have trouble communicating now because of my sleep deprivation. I told them it wasn’t possible, but they said that “anything is possible if you want it hard enough.” So, looks like I’m only left with one option. Uni + Prt-Time Wrk. Thus, = no sleep, but let’s pretend Homo Sapiens (humans) can survive without sleep (rolls eyes). -__-

    A lot of the homework isn’t even remembered by students because they are in such a rush to get it complete and out of the way, especially those that receive heaps.

    I really hope I attain a scholarship that can pay of my books or university and part time work will kill me. I’m not fabricating this. Having insanely high homework loads is what’s destroying me. 😦

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  42. I hate homework but it helps us kids I mean we learn more and we are smarter to all you parents dont do your kids homework that is not right!

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  44. There is way too much homework. Technically it’s supposed to help, but most of the time all it gives me is a headache and less sleep. I am so much better when I have slept at least 6 hours!!! On top of that, my classes start at 6:30, so I have to get up at 5 to get ready. Most of the time I am up until 12 studying. My social life has significantly decreased and the things I like to do are slowly getting squeezed out. My weekends are plagued with homework, I still have homework on holidays, and sometimes even “breaks”. If it gets any worse I just don’t know what I’m going to do. What do they think I am, a computer?

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  45. We don’t live in the us but my sons are 17&13 and my daughter is 13. What I dont understand is they’re in school for 7 hours not including the 45 mins getting there and the 45 mins back. They don’t do anything after school or weekends because we simply haven’t time. I work from home and Dad is in Iraq. The 13 yr old usually get about 2-5 hrs homework each night and 4-8 at weekends! And the 17 year old who is getting 4-8 hours and upto 12 at weekends! Not including study. I find this ridiculous! Last time dad came home we left school 30 mins early to collect him and told the kids spending time with dad was more important than homework but they got 2 weeks detention even though i gave a note! I changed their schools 2 years ago due to the amount of homework but its worse! Its tearing our family apart. When their dad comes home they should be able to spend time with hime because we must cherish every moment with him because its very dangerous out there and you never know that he could be the next man lowered into the ground just like many people he knew…….

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  50. Homework is a big trouble for me. It really catches me in a bad, vicious cycle. i always end up w/ my mom yelling at me after having a bad, stessful day of one or two missed assignments, and the day @ school was already stessful alone. Then my mom gets to stalk my every assignment on infinitecampus. After a bad day i get to come home to her. She procedes to infinitecampus to look at every last class. It’s insanely stessing, and when it builds up, bam vicious cycle.
    Another problem is that she’s one of those parents who acts like thier time with school was almost or absolutely perfect. so i get to listen to her yelling and swearing at me because “this is what i did, it’s so @#$! simple, why won’t YOU do it?!” Worse, half her little tips are invalid, but she still has to expect me to use them or she gets more pissed if i tell her when she’s lecturing me. All about the homework.

    and still, more problems. Now here’s the classic deal i get that’s so overused and inefficient: Do you homework when you get home, and before i do, and you won’t be punished. Of course when something bad happens, punishment. however when something good happens.

    “Okay, a bunch of 100s here. Good. Some 100s here, nice-
    What the @$%! is this?! Another 50?! Why’d you get this?! And on and on. Why does every parent think that the only motivation is punishment and yelling, especially with school?

    I hate my life, who’s to blame? Hmm, i wonder HOMEWORK.

    …I swear after i’m done with MS and enter HS i’ll end up contemplating suicide. Sad.

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