Mom Calls Out School for Assigning a Book About a Working Mom Who Is 'Too Busy'

March 20, 2019

Working moms often say that they feel massive amounts of guilt. When they're with their kiddo, they feel pulled toward their work. When they're working, they feel as though they should be with their L.O. Basically, the last thing a working mom needs is to be shamed or guilted for her attempts to juggle everything in her life—by her kid's school, nonetheless. And yet, that's exactly what happened to a mom who took to Twitter to share a photo of her child's reading homework, entitled "Too Busy" by Greg Lang, featuring a stress working mom on the cover.

"What a kick in the teeth," the mom, who asked to remain anonymous, wrote. "Thanks #lausd [Los Angeles Unified School District]. I guarantee I’ll be too busy for a lot at Ivanhoe going forward. Including donating."

She then posted a follow-up tweet, writing, "Goodness, I must have been too busy on the computer to tag @LASchools correctly. Talk to me about how this book is educational or uplifting. Because it just fell into my meat grinder as I prepared food for my family. Was the Mom really too busy?"

Twitter was aghast, responding with a ton of snarky, supportive, and on-point comments, like, "Maybe if Mommy’s work didn’t force her to work on a 20 year old PC, she’d have time to play games with her children. ... 'Sorry kids, I’m still waiting for Windows 95 to boot up'" and "This kinda crap is ALL OVER school libraries and old literacy levels books like this - it's so gross and so pervasive. Districts/schools do not like to replace books no matter how old or offensive they are."

The mom tells Parents.com that she sat down with her child to discuss the issue with the book. "We re-read the questions at the end together," she says. "And then we went on to who might have helped the parent in each scene. Like the two children, for example. Or what the kids might have done to help themselves in each scene. And who helps in our house and how they help in their own ways. I don't know that it gave my child a ton of insight, but we can kind of only go from our own moments at home."

Although this mom figured out a way to explain the book to her child, and as heartening as it is to see that most people are as equally appalled as this mom, only time will tell if the school district realizes the error of their antiquated ways.