Homework helper or hinderer?

A few weeks ago, I was commenting on how hard it is for me to help my daughter with her 4th grade math homework.  Not that I can't do the math  (I know where the calculator is) but because it is way too easy for me to just give her the answer. 

What's 48 divided by 6?  

It's 8.  

How do you know?  

It just is, that's how I know.

This system gets the homework done much faster and with less whining and tears (from child and parent) than if I make her do it on her own.  

And I've since discovered it's not just math.  Last week I was "helping" her edit some writing.  She was supposed to be circling spelling errors in a story she had written and correcting them...but I found myself at the dining room table with the red pen, circling her errors and fixing the words as I read her story.  My wife had to yell at me from the kitchen to stop doing her work for her.  At which point a gave her a dictionary and made myself sit in another room while she finished.

Well, today I discovered proof of what I feared all along....that's it not just me taking the easy way out on homework.  

Every Monday afternoon I volunteer for an hour in my daughter's class room.  I usually run some math flashcards or help them write some science definitions in their notebooks.  Today, while helping some kids master division by 8's I heard this exchange between the teacher and another student:

Teacher:  How did you get these answers?  You were supposed to be working along with us when we were doing them on the blackboard.

Student: I just copied down the answers.

Teacher:  So now how are you going to do the rest of these since you don't know how we got those answers?

Student: I don't know

Teacher: And so now you'll need to take the worksheet home and do it as homework. And who will do it then? Mom, right? And I know 
she already knows how to do it. But do you?

So there it is....apparently there are more of us out there.  
Parents like me that take the "easy in the short term but really very bad in the long term" solution to homework.  

And worse yet, the teachers can tell when this happens!

And really, there is no excuse for this. I have no excuse or explanation for my behavior other than laziness and a fear making my daughter upset. Totally lame on my part.

I will take this as a challenge to not do her homework for her anymore. (unless we're missing something good on TV.**)

(**kidding about that TV thing - just seeing if you were paying attention)