My daughter lost her social studies essay because LibreOffice doesn't have autosave on automatically.
This is about the most recent version of LibreOffice on Windows 10. I can't speak for other versions.
My daughter worked hard on her social studies essay. I type things in for her because she’s a really bad typist, but she tells me what to write… but I didn’t remember to manually save her social studies essay yesterday, and for some reason the ThinkPad rebooted, LibreOffice crashed and we lost the whole thing... because autosave was not automatically on when I installed it.
No, recovery didn't work. We just got a blank file.
I rewrote it for her based on the information we had and what I remembered and tried to make it sound like what a 13-year-old would write because it was basically my fault and she did do the work. I did have her sit with me as I wrote it in case she didn’t like something I wrote, but it was sort of cheating. I'm okay with that cheating since I know she worked hard on it.
First, though, I went into the settings and turned on autosave.
I like LibreOffice, but why the hell is that not on automatically? Honestly, I don't really understand why someone wouldn't want their documents autosaved, but I'm pretty sure most people would want that.
This isn't fucking 1993. I shouldn't have to remember to save a document anymore and it shouldn't be lost forever because of it.
Like I said, I like LibreOffice. I don't really want to trust documents to Microsoft or Google. But this was really annoying.
you are old enough to have kids, you should be old enough to know to press ctrl-s frequently.
I'm okay with that cheating since I know she worked hard on it.
This is a horrible character trait to pass on to a kid. You are saying that because she worked hard she deserves a good grade regardless of how she gets the good grade. That’s not how education or the real world works. You are raising a monster.
There are so many red flags here. She should be learning to type faster. The modern world requires typing your own work. She may very well be typing slowly on purpose so you will do it for her. I suggest this because I used to do it to my parents until they saw me typing fast while playing computer game.
You should have used this as a teaching moment. Sometimes you screw up, make a mistake, and have to redo your work from scratch.
You won’t take this advice or the advice from any other comment here. I wish you and your child the best of luck, but this situation is absolutely rife with bad decisions.
Jesus, mate! Calm down. Poor OP already feels like crap for losing their daughter's essay, and you level some heinous shit at both of them. Plus, they were passing on a PSA for other users of LibreOffice, in case they get caught out by the same thing.
You are saying that because she worked hard she deserves a good grade.
No, I'm saying that because she worked hard on an essay she wrote, writing it again wouldn't serve any educational purpose. I rewrote it with her sitting next to me, based on what I remembered that she had written the day before, so that she could help me remember what was written.
What educational purpose would making her do the whole thing again serve?
Also... maybe meet my daughter first before deciding a 13-year-old child is a monster?
What educational purpose would making her do the whole thing again serve?
Learning from mistakes. Learning that when you screw up, you don’t get a free pass to fix your mistakes. Learning to save frequently when working on a document. I can go on and on.
You are coddling your child and I feel bad for her.
So you're saying she should learn that when someone else makes a mistake, she doesn't get a free pass to fix it?
I should punish her for something I did? And if I don't do that, I'm coddling her?
I mean I guess it's not a terrible thing to learn that the people who have power over you will fuck you over when they make a mistake, but I'd rather her not think of me that way.
You do what you want with your kids. I'd rather my child not grow up to think her father was an abusive asshole who punished her for things she didn't do or have any control over.
Look at how you’ve handled this situation so far. Seriously, step back and take a look at it.
First, we can skip the typing for her because that’s been discussed to death. But then, when you found the mistake, you immediately started typing again and even called it cheating because you were trying to sound like a 13 yr old girl. You are teaching her that using any means necessary to get a good grade is acceptable.
Next, you are trying to blame the software and not take responsibility for your mistake. This is teaching her not to take responsibility but to instead find something else to blame for mistakes.
No, you should not punish her for your mistake, but you should instead teach her how to handle mistakes.
I guarantee that this will happen to her in the future when she is typing her own work. She will get mad, blame the software, then cheat to get a good grade. This is what you’ve taught her.
No, you should not punish her for your mistake, but you should instead teach her how to handle mistakes.
I'm pretty sure I did by telling her I fucked up, apologizing and rewriting the essay. Which is what she would have been expected to do if she had fucked up.
Also, when you say I did not take responsibility for my mistake, are you not including the part of my post where I wrote:
it was basically my fault
Or did you just not read it?
I really don't understand why you think me taking responsibility for my error and rectifying it teaches her a lesson that you should cheat to get a good grade. Because as far as I can tell, you keep suggesting that I should punish her for my mistake and make her rewrite it. Otherwise, what is your point here?
Yes. You should have made her sit with you and redo the entire assignment. Not as punishment, but as rectifying the mistake as she would have had to do had she been the typist.
Treat it as a learning moment and not as punishment.
She already learned that lesson by watching her dad fuck up, then fix the problem with his own effort. If he made her sit down and do the whole thing over again she would've instead learned a lesson by watching her dad fuck up, then fix it by making it someone else's problem.
OP already made it a learning moment. He told his kid it was his fault and he'd take responsibility for it. The kid also learned her parent has humility and has her back when things go wrong.
Sure, you can go the other route and have her re-write it, but I don't think that would've been as good a learning experience for the kid. "Life sucks sometimes kiddo. Sometimes you do nothing wrong and still get saddled with extra work and strife." The kid's 13. Give em a break, Red Forman.
First you claim I didn't take responsibility, which I did, now you're saying I should have had her sit with me, which I did.
Did you read my post at all?
And you still haven't explained to me how me taking responsibility for my mistake, apologizing for it and then fixing the problem myself teachers her to cheat in order to get a good grade. Can you please explain that?