The homework standoff is usually about starting, not working
Ask a parent how long homework takes and you get two numbers: the time the work takes, and the time the evening takes. The gap between them is where families lose their weeknights.
The gap is almost always at the start. Beginning a task requires switching out of whatever was happening, tolerating the first minutes of not-yet-being-good-at-it, and accepting that the evening now contains work. None of that is about the maths.
Shrink the entry, not the task
Agreements about volume — "just do half" — miss the bottleneck, because half still has to be started. Agreements about entry work better: get the books out and read the first question aloud, then decide. The overwhelming majority of children who read the first question continue.
The negotiation should be about the first two minutes, not about the last twenty.
Where the adult sits
Proximity without supervision helps more than either alone. An adult doing their own quiet task at the same table supplies the social cue for working without turning the session into an inspection.
When it is not about starting
If a child begins readily and then stalls repeatedly on the same kind of question, that is a different problem wearing the same clothes, and it is worth mentioning to the teacher rather than solving at the kitchen table.
Correction, July 2, 2026: An earlier version described the start-up delay as 'procrastination'. Several teachers wrote to say the term implies a choice that the research does not support for younger children. The wording has been changed.