If there’s one thing that GenX and Millennial parents have gotten right, it’s that when they see something they say something – and in general, they are pretty hip to all of the things they wish had been done differently when they were growing up.
In particular, we’ve come an awfully long way when it comes to calling out sexism – even, it seems, when it arrives under the guise of homework.
When mom Lynne Polvino read this assignment over the shoulder of her 6-year-old daughter, her reaction was visceral and immediate.
“I was already feeling pretty frazzled, and when I read the assignment, I almost lost it.”
I mean, once you check out the story about how a mother is returning to work after maternity leave and finding it hard to balance all of the work at home, too, it’s hard to blame her.
Image Credit: Facebook
“It just pushed so many buttons for me. And with each sentence it managed to get worse! My shock and dismay quickly turned to outrage. mean, what decade are we in, anyway? In this day and age, we’re going to tell kids that mothers working outside the home make their children and families unhappy? That fathers don’t normally do things like cook and wash the dishes?”
She was so riled up that she actually rewrote the assignment (but also helped her daughter complete it as written, too).
Image Credit: Facebook
The rewrite goes all out, having Lisa “happy” her mother is returning to work after being able to stay home for so long and her father pleased to do his part and keep the morning running like a well-oiled machine.
Lisa is happy at her well-funded, well-staffed school full of well-paid teachers, too, and even gets to attend an after school program with Legos.
A perfect world, y’all, but it doesn’t have to be a dream.
Lynne says she wants her new version to “reflect the kind of world I want to live in, the kind of world I want my kids to live in when they’re old enough to have jobs and families.”
The teacher, along with many social media followers, agreed that a rewrite was necessary and applauded Lynne’s efforts, while others thought she was seeing things that weren’t there and worrying too much about a silly school assignment.
Which side do you come down on?
Is this the sort of thing that needs correcting, or can we let some things go, assuming that there are probably families out there who still operate this way?
Let’s talk it out in the comments!
