What Support Exists for Parents Exhausted by Their Child’s Schooling?
When Helping Your Child Feels Like a Full-Time Job
Some evenings, you may find yourself sitting at the kitchen table, surrounded by undone multiplication worksheets, half-eaten dinner plates, and a child on the verge of tears—or already there. You’re tired. Not just from work or chores. You’re overwhelmed from always having to be the tutor, the coach, the motivator, and sometimes the emotional caretaker when school becomes a daily battle. It's okay to admit it: being a parent can feel like a second career in education.
You're not alone. Many parents of 6 to 12-year-olds wrestle with the silent burden of homework fatigue and school stress. But what if support existed—not only for your child, but also for you? Not in the form of more responsibilities or new routines to master, but in ways that actually lighten your load, preserve your energy, and help your child progress without putting all of it on you?
Let Go of the “You vs. Homework” Mentality
One mother I recently spoke with, Isabelle, shared how afternoons had become battlegrounds. “I’d come home from work completely drained, and then it was like round two. Arguing over reading assignments, trying to explain fractions, dealing with tears over a failed spelling test. I just couldn’t do it all anymore.”
This experience is common—and incredibly exhausting. But sometimes what prolongs the stress isn't the homework itself, but our expectations around it. Do we need to sit beside our kids for every task? Are we responsible for reteaching every lesson they didn't understand at school?
Probably not. In this reflection on parental burnout, we explore how trying to “fix” school struggles by doing more can backfire. The truth is, no parent is meant to carry it all. Asking what realistic help looks like is the first step toward easing the load.
Outsource Without Guilt
There’s a somewhat hidden pressure many parents feel: if you’re not helping your child every night, you’re failing them. But what if outsourcing wasn’t a cop-out but a strategy?
Help can come in many forms:
- Leaning on school resources: Many teachers offer support sessions or homework clubs. Make use of them. It's not a weakness to let someone else help your child grasp a subject.
- Enlisting another adult: A retired grandparent, an organized older cousin, or a neighbor who’s good with math—sometimes kids hear things better from someone who isn’t mom or dad.
- Empowering your child with tools: Today’s resources go far beyond textbooks. For example, apps can turn written lessons into audio or interactive content, so your child learns without needing your constant supervision. One solution we’ve seen work well is turning a screenshot of class notes into a 20-question quiz your child can do solo—Skuli, a learning companion app available on iOS and Android, makes this process as simple as taking a photo.
The key isn’t to remove yourself entirely from the picture—it’s to stop being the whole picture. Your child needs more than help; they need independence, confidence, and tools they can use themselves.
Change the Environment, Not Just the Approach
One surprisingly effective way to lower stress is to examine when and how learning happens. For example, if evenings are chaotic and everyone’s energy is low (pretty typical in most households), maybe it’s time to rethink your evening routine.
A dad I met recently, Thomas, told me they shifted their homework window to mornings. “Before breakfast, my son would listen to his spelling words turned into an audio story—it made him laugh and remember the words better, and we avoided our usual nighttime meltdowns.” Kids between six and twelve are highly sensitive to mood and timing; when they’re anxious or overtired, learning simply doesn’t stick. So why not create environments that support, rather than clash with, their natural rhythms?
Start Small, Stay Consistent
If everything feels hard right now, don’t try to fix it all in a week. Choose one manageable change.
- Try letting your child choose one assignment to do independently.
- Replace one direct homework session with solo learning time, maybe with an audio version of the lesson to listen to during a car ride.
- Reframe your role—from being their instructor to being their guide. A small shift that often leads both parent and child toward more peace.
In this guide to low-effort evening revision, we share a few ways to review material without adding to the family workload—and more importantly, without adding drama.
Your Wellbeing Matters, Too
It’s hard to parent well when you’re not well. And while exhaustion might feel like the default state of adult life, it’s worth examining whether the school struggle is robbing your joy beyond the kitchen table.
In this article on smarter support strategies, we explore how the most effective parents aren’t the ones who do everything—they’re the ones who do a few things well, sustainably. One of those things might be simply showing your child that you believe in them enough to let go a little.
Parenting through school struggles is hard. But it can also be a space for growth—for your child, of course, but also for you. Support is out there, and you don’t have to carry this alone.