As the kids are getting older their homework naturally gets tougher, with Roo now fully in high school mode and staring down the GCSE’s, the level of Homework has shot up, being parents you will often get asked for help, whether its 5, 10 or 14 kids will always ask for some help and some point.

As a Parent

As a parent there is that part of you that wants to help, I personally like to do it in a way of explaining and rewording questions etc so they can find the answer for themselves, or give them hints and pointers of what they should be looking at that, but ultimately them making the decision/ answer. Much of this is from my past as a Manager, I’ve done almost everything you can think of in managing includes running training courses and training developing staff, so these instincts come naturally nowadays.

Again with the kids at 3 different ages, I do have to change the way I do it,  especially with their personalities, Tigger can close off and get upset at not being able to do it, or get stressed, Roo just talks…and talks…and talks…and her concentration can waver, whereas Piglet generally tackles things head-on and is beyond confident, even when she’s doing it wrong lol.

But, homework can differ, and with Roo it’s very much at that point where I’m not great on some of the stuff, I realise some people really struggle with a variety of subjects and it can be very daunting, you don’t want to let your kids down, you feel like you should be helping, and you don’t want to look silly, dumb, stupid or whatever. We all have that though, subjects, or parts of it that we don’t like or can’t do, this can all be upsetting, and for some could add on top of their own mental health and anxieties.

What am I good at?

As for me it is generally ok, I’m not the cleverest person in the room, but I’m also very good at most things, my GSE results might not suggest that lol, (a story for another day), ironically English has never been my strong point, I’m far better at typing than I am writing but at the same time im not the level of some of the people I’ve spoken to or met, these people are like dictionaries, thesaurus and well written and spoken people.

I’m, not that…but over the years I do know like stuff, thus I can hold my own with most, maths is an area I’m really good at however as im finding out recently more and more, Fractions, Physics, Algebra are all areas that I now really struggle with, let’s be honest in adult life 95% of us don’t use these, and for me whatever I did learn has slowly escaped my mind, in reflection, I was great at these which perhaps was the reason for next getting an A* but hey ho.

What am I not so good at?

Some other subjects I’m not so good on, English, as I mentioned earlier, isn’t a strong point at all but thankfully Roo is ok at this, and I very rarely have to get involved, Boo is quite good at it, so I tend to leave the parenting side of that to her, I probably should work on this area, especially nowadays but it’s just something I’m not overly keen on doing. Science is a bit up and down, and to be honest, it’s such a broad subject and covers so much.

I think most of us would struggle with certain things, I know some stuff but going into detail? not so much, again many subjects I feel I know enough from what I learnt from school and what I have picked up over the years.

How does it effect me?

Thankfully it doesn’t affect me to the level of what it does others, it does bother me and it does worry me at times when trying to help the kids, With Roo she’s about to hit the main run of her work and exams so this will ramp up again, and I will try to help her and guide her as much as I can, with the other two its much of the same and hopefully helping Roo will help me for the future,

Tigger is about to hit that age of being the last year in school before high school so he now jumps in level also. There are things I need to improve on, and some people have even taken educational steps as an adult to help with there own learning and improvement which in turn would help kids also in these situations, and I commend them for that, as for me I will just have to tackle this head-on.