Sundays. More particularly Sunday evenings. One word to strike fear and horror into the heart of both parents and children alike... HOMEWORK...
Traditional homework doing times in our house when I was a teen were (i) the evening of the day it was dished out if it meant that I could get out of doing the washing up (ii) on the bus on the morning it was due to be handed in (iii) Sunday Evening.
The worst thing about doing my homework on a Sunday Evening was that Dad would be around to "help"... On Sunday evenings lovely, funny, cuddly Dad was touched by the forces of evil and mutated into Maths Homework Dad. Is there anything worse in the whole world than your father insisting on helping with Maths homework? My Dad had studied Maths at university for a while and found numbers endlessly fascinating and magical - I on the other hand found them non-sensical and endlessly mind numbing. Needless to say he was severely disappointed in me and my mathematical prowess. He went on to be mathematically disappointed in Gill and Jo in turn, followed by Steph when her time came. He could not understand why we just didn't get it and we in turn were utterly disinterested in getting it. I can remember as a small child sobbing myself to sleep over long division - all that stuff about 3 goes into 10 three times and carry 1 had me baffled. Most maths homework sessions ended with us in tears and Dad gritting his teeth and us all stamping off in different directions muttering darkly about each other. It was one of his few failings as far as we girls were concerned. It's a big pity that he didn't live long enough to see how much Holly loves maths - they could have communed over numbers and got all rapturous about quadratic equations, differential calculus ... and stuff... whatever...
7 comments:
Math is a four letter word for many. Your story brings a big smile to my face. I was pretty good at math until algebra came along, then I started to learn many other four letter words! Fun times!
Oh, you stirred that pot that holds my homework memories! Nicely told!
Both of us on the same page today! How I hated my mutated maths Dad!
My dad was pretty happy about my math skills. Thanks to him, I teach math to high school students.
But my physics was not what he desired it to be. I remember memorable times studying with him.
I spent many a morning trying to do homework on a bouncing school bus!
Everything okay, Leslie, you've gone very quiet.
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