Helping a kid with their homework isn’t as easy as you might think. Sure, when they’re learning letters and simple addition and subtraction, it’s not bad—even fun!—but as your kids grow up, it gets way more complicated. One mom in the United Kingdom found this out the hard way when she couldn’t figure out her first-grade daughter Lilly-Mo’s assignment, and it’s so relatable.
Laura Rathbone shared a picture of the assignment with TODAY, which was designed for the 6- and 7-year-olds in the class. “Which word is the odd one out?” the assignment reads, offering these five choices: “friend,” “desk,” “toothbrush,” “egg,” and “silver.” Um… Is it just me, or are all of these the odd one out? I’m not really sure what any of these words have in common—and Rathbone didn’t either.
“At first I thought I was losing my mind. I was like, ‘What am I missing here?’” the England-based mom told TODAY recently. “So I posted in a group with loads of moms hoping they would have the answer.”
In the Facebook group, Rathbone asked per Independent, “So… my six-year-old daughter who’s in year one got this homework question. It’s confusing in my opinion, to say the least, especially considering the age it’s aimed at… I think it’s something you’d find in a Puzzler magazine personally but let me know your thoughts.”
Commenters provided a variety of answers, and pretty convincing reasons why each would be true, including “egg” because it’s the only one you can eat, “toothbrush” because it “is the only word without an E,” and “friend” because it’s “not an object.”
“Everybody had different theories, and it was quite interesting!” Rathbone told TODAY. “I really enjoyed reading all of the comments.”
Honestly, Lilly-Mo probably would have gotten an A if she chose any of these answers and explained her reasoning!
Related: I refuse to do my kids’ homework
Rathbone eventually decided to just ask her daughter’s teacher. The first-grade teacher said the answer was “silver” because it’s an adjective (when used as a color) and the rest are nouns. Personally, she should have picked “red” or “yellow” instead of “silver,” since technically silver (the metal) is a noun.
As a mom of a first-grader myself, I would like to personally petition on behalf of Rathbone and all the tired, stressed moms out there—can you please email us an answer sheet if you are going to send homework home with the kids? Or maybe, save the complicated stuff for the classroom and give them more simple assignments that we can help with…like reading. Especially because too much homework for elementary-aged kids can actually be detrimental toward their physical health and their attitudes toward school in general. One thing’s for sure: if you’ve ever had trouble helping your child with their homework, you are definitely not alone.