Theory: Two terminal degrees – a J.D. and Ph.D.- should qualify me to respond to my child’s questions about how to complete her homework.
Reality: Regardless of the amount of knowledge you possess, if your response is not in exact alignment with what your child heard in class from their teacher you are about as credible as a pet rock.
Case in point: Cheyenne has a factor worksheet. You know the kind that tells you the shortcuts for divisibility (e.g., even numbers are divisible by two, if the sum of the digits of the number is divisible by three then three is a factor, etc.) and then asks you to list the factors of numbers like 12, 45 and 72. Piece of cake, I can do factors even without the shortcut rules. Ah, but wait…Cheyenne’s teacher told her a certain way to do it and the way I told her to do it does not comport (in her mind) with what her teacher said.
Well, this is only going to go one way; before you know it she is telling me I don’t know how to do it because that is not how her teacher said to do it. That is when I try to argue logically that of course I know what I am talking about as I have a solid education, I teach at a university, I have successfully raised other children – I have the ability to help – I have a track record of helping. Oh no, that frivolous argument will get me nowhere. If I didn’t explain or do it the way the teacher explained or did it I am wrong. Trust me – you could put money on this in Las Vegas. In the battle of teacher vs. mom I am a perennial loser.
One year when Cheyenne’s teacher misspelled one of the spelling words on the weekly spelling list, I corrected it on the sheet. You would have thought I put everything the child holds dear in danger. That time I even pulled out the dictionary to show her that her teacher had just made a mistake. She was having no part of it. If the teacher wrote the word that way, that is how it is spelled – period. And I dare not correct a word on the spelling list the teacher gave her.
So there you have it…it is only so if the teacher says so. If only I could get the teacher to tell my kid I am the brightest mother ever…maybe then my factor skills would get the recognition they deserve.
Day one hundred and ninety-nine of the new forty – obla di obla da
CC
THE NEW FORTY 
Well, I still think you are one of the smartest people I know! Karyn now feels all of her teachers are “dumb” so I guess we don’t get it both ways. If eye rolls are the equivalent of “dumbness”….I have an I.Q. score of 2 =)
LikeLike
Oh, Carol, I have BTDT — been there, done that –and the worst one was my daughter. Then when she figured out that her teachers WERE fallible, she doubted EVERYTHING they said. But what’s really nice is that she now trusts my judgment a good share of the time.
LikeLike
Don’t worry Carol, when she is about 20 she will start asking for your opinion, and money, and food……
LikeLike
I gave up that battle years ago. Funny story: My oldest daughter didn’t have a graphing calculator to do this wicked math. But, she taught herself to do it by hand. (this was before the schools had loaner calculators) She got confused on a complex problem and asked the teacher for assistance. The teacher did not know how to do it without the calculator. My daughter lost all respect for that teacher on that day because she was now smarter than the teacher. Talk about a lesson in fallible people.
Security code of the day: cherubim university. LOL!
LikeLike