Facebook - Lynne Polvino
New York mum, Lynne Polvino, was helping her daughter Hazel, six, complete her homework when she noticed something was off.
The worksheet, entitled Back to Work, was the story of a little girl called Lisa who was upset because her mum had returned to the workforce.
‘I was already feeling pretty frazzled, and when I read the assignment, I almost lost it,’ Polvino told TODAY Parents.
The story began with the words ‘Lisa was not happy. Her mother was back at work.’ It then went on to say Lisa’s father had to cook breakfast, which was ‘not too good.’
But the story had a happy ending, only because Lisa’s mother came home early from work.
‘It just pushed so many buttons for me, and with each sentence it managed to get worse!’ said Polvino, who works as a children’s books editor.
‘My shock and dismay quickly turned to outrage. I mean, what decade are we in, anyway? In this day and age, we’re going to tell kids that mothers working outside the home makes their children and families unhappy? That fathers don’t normally do things like cook and wash the dishes?’
Infuriated, Polvino decided to re-write the worksheet.
In Polvino’s version of the assignment’s, Lisa is happy that her mother has gone back to work.
‘The morning was wonderful,’ Polvino wrote. ‘Lisa had to get to school on time. Her mother had to get to work on time. Her father was home on his paid paternity leave, caring for Lisa’s younger brother and contributing equally to the running of the household. No one was in a rush because Dad had things firmly under control.’
Her version has been met with praise from working mothers around the world.
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