How competitive are you as parents with school competitions?

[Carlymah]

My 7 & 8y/o DS's had a poster competition at school. I LOVE to make things and got stuck in to making their poster with them, admittedly, it was more mummy's piece of work than the boys
although we all enjoyed discussing the topic of "stranger danger" whilst making it so was a worthwhile exercise, plus, THEY WON! Bonus!
I will add, it wasn't to win some extravagant prize, the prize was a pencil case & a hat

After speaking to a colleague, he tells me he had a printing/web design friend submit a school competition entry for his child a few years back!

I'm interested to discover how far you have gone to ensure your child's success of a win at school?!

Sorry but at my kids school this wouldn't have won and was clearly mostly made by a parent. None of the creativeness has come from the child.

Not at all. We submit a gluey, glittery mess that is all their own work. Sadly the prize normally goes to the child whose parents made theirs. I'm crafty but in also mindful of the fact it's a competition for the child, not me so I try not to influence them.

It's cheating.

At DCs’ school they will exclude entries that look as if they have come from parents (usually the teachers have a good idea of what the children are capable of from the classroom to be accurate with judging this).

Wtf? This is terrible.

God I find it so tragic when I see all these amazing creations clearly from parents.

I support my children with their home learning if there is things they don't understand, if I am able to help them. I don't do their work for them. But now I know why they don't win competitions that they have worked on independently and put lots of work in. Because of competitive parents like you. That's nothing to be proud of. It's absolutely shit.

It’s a lovely poster but I’m very surprised that you won. I’m not sure it reflects well on the teacher tbh.

It's really sad that you won.
I presume you accepted the pencil case and hat

I don't usually do work for my child. If she needs help on ideas, I will make some suggestions but she never listens anyway . I can see lots of parents helping their kids so you won't be the only one am sure. Yeah their children win the competition but that's not cos of the real talent of the child so not sure why it's something to be happy about - that those parents who help beat other 7 year olds?

I'm really against schools giving prizes for things that are obviously mostly done by the parent. It's just not fair.

My kids haven't had things like this yet, but when they do I won't be doing it for them. Sure helping them have the right materials etc, and with trickier bits they might not be able to manage, but I would want them to make something themselves, that they can submit and be proud of. If it was something that we were all interested in as a topic then we might all make our own versions, so we can still enjoy working together, but yeah, for school competitions I think it's shit when parents do it, get the prize, and children who have done it themselves and made a real effort, get missed out

Oh no! Parent creations are the worst! I'm not sure who they are trying to impress???

Our school we don't even bother much of the time as the same 3 or so families win them all by work the parents obviously did.

We have an obviously made by parents category so that all the parents that need validation by entering a children's competition can receive it (or not depending if they win)

The children's competition is won by those that should be entering - children

We used to call it mummy's Easter hat competition when my kids were in infant school. It's really bizarre and quite pathetic behaviour but schools which award prizes for mummy work are partly to blame.

I know I can make a brilliant stranger danger poster, better than anything even the most capable junior school children could produce. But do I really want to? Nope.

Surely this is a wind up? Nobody could possibly be this oblivious to how ridiculous submitting an adult’s work in a children’s art contest is 😂

Help them cut stuff, sure, advise and ask them to think to the end result? Yup. Anything really awkward, totally. Make suggestions of course. End of.

It's actually embarrassing at times, but I'd prefer my girls walk in proud of how and what they've done than mum showing off her nostalgic creativity. How do the kids learn?

Our school would see right through that! All the teachers have been there long enough to not be fooled. Where is the sense of achievement for your children?

I can’t believe any teacher thought that was the work of an 8yo

Reminds me of the hat competition in school when DS1 was about 8. Won by a girl wearing a papier mache Eiffel Tower half as big as her, beautifully painted complete with working fairy lights. Dad seemed particuarly proud that she'd won.

It doesn't matter how much I help my children, it still looks like it's been done by a child. Fortunately, my children aren't as Bad at art as I am.

But I hate these sort of things for this reason... Some parents go OTT and it's no longer about the children.

I limit my help to spelling these days.

It’s utterly pointless for you to do their work for them! If I ever feel tempted to interfere, I sit down with them and make/write something myself. So we are still spending time together and chatting about the process, but they create their own stuff - and I usually realise they have much better ideas than me!

So not only did you enter a childrens poster competition and then won the prize from a more deserving child. You then proceeded to post it on here for further potential validation. Wtf? This must be a wind up. How embarrassing for you.