Teacher Tells Mom They Don’t Have Time To Teach Her Child To Tie Shoes

There’s a lot of learning going on in the elementary years. It can be totally overwhelming to teach a child how to, well, live. Thankfully, we have teachers to help us out with a lot of it — but, one teacher on TikTok argues that certain things are simply parent’s responsibilities.

Former teacher @fitpeanut shared a screenshot from a video a mom posted on the platform, showing her controversial request.

In the screenshot, the mom wrote a note to her child’s teacher in his agenda, asking, “Can y’all please help him tie his shoes. I don’t want him to fall.”

The teacher responded to the note, writing, “I’m sorry we can’t do that. We only have time to teach the standards.”

The mom captioned the video, “Wow, suggestions or comments? He’s only in the first grade.”

Look, nobody wants kids tripping down the hallway at school. But, there are solutions to this problem that don’t involve teachers taking time away from the rest of the class.

“Here’s the thing,” @fitpeanut said in the TikTok. “At six years old, your child should know how to already tie his shoes. If not, get him velcro sneakers.”

Good point…

“Secondly, your teacher does not have the time to be tying the students shoes,” she continued. “She’s got 20 to 25 kids in that class. She is trying to teach curriculum, manage some behaviors, support and accommodate the IEP students, and there are not enough hours in the day for the teacher to do everything that she has to do so.”

Teachers have to manage so many unavoidable challenges. But parents can help them deal with this fairly avoidable one, whether it’s by teaching kids how to tie their shoes at home, or sending them in shoes without laces.

“Your teacher doesn’t even have a chance to go pee, let alone tie your child’s shoes, and everyone else’s,” @fitpeanut said. “Please, have your child come prepared.”

The comment section largely agreed that it was not the teacher’s responsibility, though tying shoes is certainly a difficult skill for some kids to grasp.

“In kindergarten we add this at the bottom of the supplies… for safety reasons, if your child doesn’t know how to tie their shoes send them with Velcro shoes. Tying shoes for every kid is NOT possible,” replied one user.

“My daughter’s in first grade and she’s not quite there yet with tying, so I send to to school with velcro shoes no need to add stress to her day or the teacher who has enough to do!!” shared another.

Users also empathized with the mom, saying that standards for life skills kids should know should be made more clear for parents.

“At my child’s preschool the admin sat with every parent that came in and made us a sign a contract that said we understood we had a responsibility as the parent to teach them basic life skills etc,” one user said.

Nobody’s saying parents should start holding shoe-tying bootcamp for 5 year-olds. But, that’s also a high expectation to hold your likely overworked and overwhelmed elementary school teacher to. So, if tying shoes isn’t a possibility, velcro might just be the way to go for your kid.