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Parents want their kids to be successful. Sometimes, parents are a bit too obsessed with this idea, though, and they try to take matters into their own hands. That’s what happened to one mom who was caught red-handed doing her child’s homework for them.

With schools and teachers bearing the brunt of the crisis around everything from the literacy epidemic to behavioral issues in the classroom, a mom doing her child’s homework and trying to hide it isn’t exactly doing anyone any favors, especially the student. The real question is, why do it? If it’s not benefiting her kid, who does it help?

A teacher got a mom to confess that she was doing her child’s homework.

A theatre teacher posted on Reddit’s r/Teachers forum to share the amusing story of how he got a mom to admit to doing her kid’s homework at a parent-teacher conference. Apparently, the teacher suspected the mom was probably doing the work herself for the whole school year, and his suspicions were confirmed.

Alexander Dummer | Pexels

“(I) was in a meeting with a parent who was complaining about my assignments — even though the assignment has directions, rubrics, examples — and I model expectations in class in addition to explaining the assignment multiple times,” he explained. “I’ve suspected that mom has been doing her kid’s work pretty much all year.”

His suspicion that the mom was doing the homework could have been wrong, of course, but if it was, it wouldn’t explain why she was asking such strange questions. “So mom is challenging me on the requirements and I’m pushing back because everything is reasonable if you’re a student in the class and you’ve been paying attention,” he said.

“Mom says, ‘So — what exactly is the set design (I teach theatre) supposed to look like?’ and I reply, ‘It can look like whatever it needs to look like — as long as it works for the play,’ and she blurts out, ‘Well, how … am I supposed to know how to do that?’”

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Commenters found the story delightful, with some sharing their own similar stories.

“I’d be doing a happy-dance on the way out of the room after that one,” one commenter shared. “Epic self-own from the parent.”

One educator shared that one of their colleagues was forced to give a student extra credit to try to bring up his grade. She assigned an essay, which looked a bit fishy when he turned it in. She gave it a C, which did nothing to help his grade. Shortly after, his mom called the school to ask why his grade hadn’t gone up any and “yelled out,” “I got a C?”

A different teacher shared the story of how one of their students turned in a book report that looked suspiciously like it had been copied from Wikipedia. She denied adding that information to her report. As it turned out, her dad did when he printed the project out for her. “Well, it didn’t seem like it was that good so I just wanted to help her out a little,” he said.

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A father and teacher shared his own thoughts on parents doing their kids’ homework for them.

A man named Trevor wrote a blog post for Let Growan organization dedicated to promoting free-range parenting. He admitted that even he occasionally feels the temptation to take over when his kids are doing their homework, but he knows that won’t benefit anyone. “I can help them with it as needed and be a part of their learning, but I cannot be in control of it,” he said.

Julia M Cameron | Pexels

Trevor explained that doing homework for your children not only removes the element of practice that they need to improve, but also doesn’t allow them to experience stressful situations and learn how to work through them. As a teacher, he was also able to attest to the fact that teachers can tell when someone other than their students is doing their homework, and if that’s the case, they won’t know how to help those students grow.

Although you want the best for your child, it doesn’t actually benefit them for you as a parent to step in and do homework for them. It also calls their academic integrity into question.

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Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.