This Mom Told The School Her Kid Won’t Be Doing Homework Anymore

Keep Reading ↓

Children’s workloads at school seem to be getting bigger all the time and kids are getting to have less and less free time. One mom strongly believes that this is not good!

Bunmi Laditan’s 10-year-old daughter started experiencing chest pains and was waking up in the middle of the night due to stress.

Laditan decided that enough was enough.She emailed her daughter’s school to let them know she was done with homework.

After sending the email, Laditan wrote a Facebook post about how her home is now going to be homework-free and it has gone viral “My kid is done with homework. I just sent an email to her school letting her know she’s all done,” Laditan writes. “I said “drastically reduce” but I was trying to be polite because she’s finished.” The post has gone viral since with over 53k likes, 12k shares, and thousands of parents from all over agreeing with her.

On Tuesday, the mom Bunmi Laditan (who’s also a blogger) posted a screenshot of an email she sent to her daughter Maya’s teachers on Facebook.

In the email, she wrote:

“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 a.m. worrying about her school workload. 

She’s not behind academically and very much enjoys school. We consulted with a tutor and a therapist suggested we lighten her workload. 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.

Thank you for understanding.

warmly, Bunmi”

In the photo caption, the Mom further explained her decision.

“How does homework until 6:30, then dinner, then an hour to relax (or finish the homework) before bed make any sense at all?” she asked. “Is family time not important? Is time spent just being a child relaxing at home not important? Or should she become some kind of junior workaholic at 10 years old?”

The Mother noted that kids also need downtime after school, just as adults do after work. “They need to play with their siblings,” she wrote. “They need to bond with their parents in a relaxed atmosphere, not one where everyone is stressed about fractions because ― SURPRISE ― I’m not a teacher.”

She also clarified that even though she wrote “drastically reduce” in the email, she was just being polite. “My kid is done with homework,” Laditan explained.

She also noted in the post that she was nervous about the school’s reaction and hoped she wouldn’t have to resort to homeschooling.

“We all want our children to grow up and succeed in the world. While I believe in education, I don’t believe for one second that academics should consume a child’s life,” she wrote, adding that she doesn’t care if her daughter “goes to Harvard one day.”

“I just want her to be intelligent, well-rounded, kind, inspired, charitable, spiritual and have balance in her life,” Laditan added. “I want her to be mentally and emotionally healthy. I want her to know that work is not life, it’s part of life. Work will not fulfill you. It will not keep you warm ― family, friends, community, giving back, and being a good person do that.”

She concluded simply, “My kid needs to be a kid.”

In a follow-up comment, she mentioned that she does not blame her daughter’s teachers but rather the system which dictates the way they do things. Maya’s dad is a behavioral therapist who has worked to help reduce her stress, however, the workload remains a problem. “Something has to change,” she wrote.

The post received over 63,000 reactions to date and has received many positive comments from educators, child psychologists, and fellow parents.