AIBU?
AIBU to have had it with reading diaries?
cakefanatic · 27/04/2021 09:29
Wondering which way this one will go - I’ll probably be flamed.
Family life is busy, it’s busy for all of us. But this morning I am totally sick and fed up of filling in the reading diary. I read with/to/listen to my kids read all the time. Every day, in fact, and have done since they were very small. It is totally mandated by school that we have to record in their reading diary every day and it’s the one thing that’s just slipping. With the laundry and the cooking, and the never ending activity drop offs and working full time I just never quite get round to it.
School make a big deal of it, and the kids get stressed, but honestly, unless there is a problem can’t they just ease up on the bloody diary? We’ve been filling it in religiously for years now but just lately I can’t handle it.
It just seems like one of a never ending stream of requests from school, including eleventy billion fancy dress costumes, donations to worthy causes, random pieces of fruit for maths class. I could go on...
YABU - reading diaries are crucial to life on Earth
YANBU - enough already, I read with my kids and that’s what is actually important
Am I being unreasonable?
AIBUYou have one vote. All votes are anonymous.
PegPeople · 27/04/2021 09:34
Signing the reading diary takes no more than 2 seconds and can be done whilst listening to your child read. If you have to get their reading book out of the bag it's no more effort to also get out the diary. It's honestly not the hill I'd chose to die on when compared with all the other stuff the school is asking of you.
WhatWouldPhyllisCraneDo · 27/04/2021 09:46
I hardly ever wrote in dcs reading diaries. Their school wanted actual comments about their reading and there's only so many times I could write that DS1 stammered his way through a page or that ds2 read an entire chapter including different voices for the characters etc.
DS1 wasn't and still isn't a reader. DS2 had a reading age that was way above his actual age. I read with and/or to them everyday.
BrumBoo · 27/04/2021 09:49
@Demelza82
A wonderfully Mumsnet answer
.I find filling it in irritating and rather pointless. My eldest has been sent home books below his level for months, so really have little to say about him reading them. It's a quick job though 'X read Kip Digs A Hole'. He enjoyed reading this book and had no tricky words'. Repeat for weeks with different book titles.
cakefanatic · 27/04/2021 09:50
Ok so I’m exaggerating about the activity drop offs because we only have one activity in the week (football) and swimming on a Sunday.
Suggestions about child completing the diary are sensible but unhelpful because school are militant about reading out loud to an adult and want comments on expression and god knows what else.
I think my gripe is actually about tasks that are very small individually but add up to a lot of random admin. It feels like ‘busywork’
CovoidOfAllHumanity · 27/04/2021 09:54
I love reading with my kids but hate the diary too
I did try to comply with it but it always felt pointless. We read every night as a routine but we often didn't have the stupid diary to hand. I was not sure what was the purpose of proving to school that we were doing something that we do anyway but I assumed it was basically for people who wouldn't otherwise do it. Occasionally I would write a comment but it seems like it was only the TA who read them and that it was just the act of reading every day that was being rewarded not any feedback on their reading.
Since KS2 he's responsible for writing the diary himself. He tends to cheat and do it all on one night just before it's due to be handed in and just divide up the total he's read for the week into chunks for each day.
I can't really blame him. He is his mother's child.
InconvenientPeg · 27/04/2021 09:57
Yes, hated the bloody things.
I once got sent a letter detailing how children with parents who supported their children's education did better overall in life, because I forgot to fill the blasted thing in for 2 weeks.
I was seeing the teacher and ta on a regular basis at the time and asking them to assess DD for dyslexia 🤦 but apparently they thought sending me a stroppy letter was the way to make me want to comply. I nearly ripped the book up, but decided it would probably make DD cry.
Was so glad when all that rubbish finished in y3.
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