Woman with same-gender partner spots teacher’s correction in daughter’s homework about their family — calls it ‘mildly infuriating’
How many times do we think about the simple red mark on a child's copy? More often than not, it is just a simple grammatical correction. However, once in a while, red marks can highlight deeper social issues that are beyond the understanding of a child's innocent mind. Difficult to believe, isn't it? However, as reported by Newsweek on 23 March 2026, that is exactly what happened to a mother when she was casually checking a marked journal of her child. Being a lesbian mother living with her partner, there was something in that red mark that left her infuriated. She posted the story on Reddit under the username u/JeweledApplePie.
My daughter’s teachers corrections on her journal. (She has two moms)
by u/JeweledApplePie in mildlyinfuriating
What seemed like a routine classroom correction soon revealed a deeper context. The post featured a child’s journal entry where the word “moms” had been marked wrong, with the “s” crossed out in red pen. Although it simply suggested that the teacher found the plural to be a mistake, the mother couldn't help but be a little infuriated by the ignorance. In the comments, she updated that the teacher already knew the student had two moms. "My daughter also wrote, 'Me and my mom painted rocks with clovers while my mommy was at work,' and the teacher just put '?'" she wrote. So, one can assume that the teacher was either being ignorant or didn't plan to make enquiries on why a child would write that.
It was not just about crossing an 's' but trying to correct the everyday reality of a child, especially during their formative years. It can very easily create a deeper scar in the child if she begins to think that what's normal for her is not for her peers, and worse, is not being accepted by her teachers. Moreover, there's still a notable divide in comfort levels with LGBTQ-related topics in education. According to a 2024 survey by the Pew Research Center, nearly half (48%) of U.S. public K-12 teachers say parents should be able to opt their children out of learning about sexual orientation or gender identity in school, a higher share than for parents opting out of learning about racial inequality.
Many in the comment section were quick to defend the teacher. For example, u/F1Phreek said, "Yeah, I’d bet this is a simple misunderstanding. She was probably correcting 'moms' to 'mom' and wasn’t taking a political/personal/religious stance." While u/Ayanhart said, "It could also be the teacher didn't look at the name before marking and didn't realize it was this specific kid with two mothers." But some were sharing stories on how it had been done to them as well. Like u/OkPea709 commented, "Reminds me of the time when we were tasked to describe what our ideal partner would look like in German. I, being a gay guy, wrote things like: he would be tall, he would have brown hair, green eyes, etc. When I got my work back, the teacher had corrected all of the he’s to she’s."