This is an interesting question... 'cause when I was in high school, my parents didn't help me with my homework at all, and a LOT of other kids' parents did. I was very jealous. So if you would've asked tenth-grade me, I would've said, absolutely, helping kids with homework is WRONG!!

But now that I'm a mom, I think it would be very tempting to help with my son's homework. He's only three, so it won't come up for awhile, but... it'll be a tough decision.

My oldest says that he understands the work better..... especially math.... when his dad explains it to him.

I think we, as parents, would be doing a disservice to our kids if we didn't help them succeed. HELP, them with it..... Don't do it FOR THEM. There is an enormous difference.

After all of our kids do their homework, we always ask to see it. If we find errors we tell them which ones are wrong and help them arrive at the right answer WITHOUT just giving them the answer. They still come up with it on their own with extra help. Rarely will they bring their homework back with wrong answers since we helped, but we DO NOT do the work for them. They are always aware of how they arrived at their answers. It is up to them to take that knowledge and apply it to their work while they are in school where we can't look things over. 

In my opinion, just as a teacher is in the classroom to teach them things and teach them how to get the right answers, it is also our job. When they step out of the classroom and come home, it is then up to us to help them in their schoolwork if they need it. They will arrive at success with teachers AND parents working with the child. Without the parent to help out at home, success is a lot harder to get to.

Unless you're giving them the answers, absolutely not.

@kristinabean@xanga - As soon as I saw the title for this post, I wanted to reply to say what you said Lol.

There is a difference between helping and doing it for them!!

My sister is in Grade Eight, and lately, she whips out her homework when I go over to visit. She will pretty much read out her question, asking for help, before she even tries to do it herself. And my mum then whips out her calculator and proceeds to do my sister's homework. THAT is wrong, in my opinion.

Besides, my mum never helped me with my homework...

Not cheating as long as you're not telling the answer and you're heloing by providing guiding questions.

I believe someone said this, but as long as you don't give the answers, then it's not cheating. 

@kristinabean@xanga - Exactly.

I'm a criminal justice major with a police officer father (and a former police officer mother, plus countless other cops and various law enforcement related professionals in the family lol) and I ALWAYS go to my dad to look over my papers or discuss things we're talking about in class.  I've managed As in all my CJ classes and I attribute a lot of that to having my dad's help.

For example, one of our four test grades in a certain professor's class (no matter which class it is, that's how he does it) is a "take home exam" that's basically two scenarios and you have to write an essay on procedures to be taken, what charges can be brought, etc. depending on which class it is.  I'll sit down with my dad, he reads the scenario and then we discuss.  I'll say "Well it should be this" or "He should do that" and my dad will either agree or will say "What about blah de blah" and I'm like "Oh yeah...well then perhaps this because bloop de doop" and so on and so forth.  I always make stellar grades on my take homes because I work it out with my dad and I learn so much better discussing things with him.

I don't see it as cheating at all, he's not doing the work FOR me, he's helping me learn more efficiently and think like a real cop.

Helping in home work is a good thing but that can't be called a cheating. Because this is helping the child to know the thing more well. Apart from this its is better to make him understand the real thing with other examples. This will help a lot.

As long as the parent isn't doing the work for the child or just giving them the answers. There are ways to steer a child to the solution to homework. Ask questions that will get them thinking about what they need to do next.

Helping with homework is definitely not cheating.

Helping is what teachers and tutors do, they help the children understand.

Doing it for them is not helping.

:).

I commented earlier but I wanted to add this....... I will say again, that we HELP our kids with their homework all the time. We expect them to try first and then we will help, without just giving them the answer. Math is a big one. I am proud to say that my third grader came home yesterday with a large pizza that the principal bought for him because he scored the highest in his class in a math acuity test! He wouldn't have scored the highest grade if he was cheating at home because he would not have had any learned knowledge to carry over to that test. We are very proud of how well he is doing and we will continue to help him, as well as his brother and sister.

What my mom does for me is indeed cheating. When I have homework and projects from every class, which for me is all honors, she will pick up something she can do and does it on a separate sheet of paper for me. It's not something I don't know, it's just something I have very little time to get done. THAT'S cheating, I admit.