The Decimal Wallsite: A(normalized website) or Contributions? A Tale of Anger and Support
When her 7-year-old daughter asked her for help with her homework, Alyssa Dawson, 36 from Arizona, wasn’t expecting the assignment to come back to haunt her. The prompt she was given, which instructed students to draw a shape with 6 corners and 6 sides, and then to draw lines in the shape to show 2 squares and 4 triangles, seemed impossible at first. But, as a parent, both the mother and her daughter were puzzled and, at one point, sarcastically platforms the video, explaining they wouldn’t even know the answer.
[Alyssa’s Reaction]
When Dawson shared the video on Instagram, at first, she couldn’t help but feel a mix of pride and tears. The image she shared was a photo of the homework sheet, now proudly framed in her family’s home. When she saw the answer she submitted, she immediately crilkled, finding it surprisingly correct. She told Newsweek, “Raise your hand if you’ve ever been personally victimized by your child’s homework.” She responded, “When your kid asks for homework help and exposes your lack of knowledge.”
This immediate reaction was like a shock to the world, as, for the first time, she realized the extent of a situation she herself had experienced. She and her daughter engage in a conversation about how their child’s expectations compared to, or even exceeded, their own. She shared a story of her own childhood during which she chronicled her attempts to help her daughter through her math homework, only to find herself questioning her sanity.
[The Edit Process]
After reviewing the daughter’s work, Dawson subtly made what others might call a one-liner comment. She explained, “This is one of the best things you’ve posted. It’s literally the clearest explanation of fractions and geometry in a 21st-century image.” However, the daughter shot her a misspelled confession, “I asct for help but my mom dus noe the anser e ether.” Her eyes widened in pain as she shared her heart’s worth of frustration.
The video gained a massive following, becoming one of the most viewed posts on the platform in its 10th day. The humor from the aftermath only increased, especially on the second day, when a ההת Compatibility comment from chethawleyz posted a video of her counting out how her mother felt during this experience. Other comments wereRendering her day, many of which reflected on the stress they endured.
[The functools]
Others visited the caption and shared their own moments, like indyunleashed, who humorously offered a hint related to the homework: “Round shape, a hexagon. It’s so easy, even for aным. And it’s funny how it came to this point I was [in front of].”
The mundane task of drawing a hexagon, a figure with six sides and six corners, became a narrative of shared family frustration during a time when, at the time of the video, other parents either seemed to understand the difficulty or were actively divided. It was a singular yet universal moment: a mother acknowledging the limits of human help, and, time and time again, the daughter who was then exactly as frustrated as the mom.
As time ticked on, the video’s impact began to decay as, without revisiting, the traffic on Instagram remained a low level. However, the emotional weight of the moment remained robust, forcing many to reflect on their own story of parenting and support.
In the end, both the mother and daughter sat in silence, reflecting on what happened—a minute. The funny video became an everyday reminder of how sometimes the most difficult tasks—and, importantly, the least amusing—can be reimagined as tools for fostering understanding and shared support among family.
