Kindergartner Lawyers Up, Files Affidavit Over Missing Reading Homework

Tell me your mom is a lawyer without telling me your mom is a lawyer.

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It’s mid-May, and the end of the school year is so close, yet oh so far away. For working parents, just a few more year-end children’s projects stand between them and summer’s sweet, sweet homework-less bliss. For Ashley Cranford Marshall, a small law firm owner in Enterprise, Alabama, the task at hand was her kindergartner’s 100-book reading log, but as Marshall explained to Above the Law, she was just “over it.”

Marshall, a military spouse who’s a graduate of Alabama Law, is the quintessential lawyer mom. She really loves her children, but like so many working mothers, she’s just so, so tired.

Marshall’s young son had gotten every other kindergarten award there was, save for the one reserved for those who had read 100 books. Reading logs were sent home time and again, but there were just too many to fill out. Her son had done the work and then some, so instead of recreating all those missing reading logs, Marshall knew it was time to use her legal training to get the job done.

“As a working mom, I’m just tired. I try to keep up, but sometimes it’s all a bit too much,” Marshall told us. “I decided to put some of my best lawyering out there, but this time do it for my kid. I thought if an affidavit was good enough for court, then it would be good enough for this.”

This is the affidavit that Marshall sent her son to school with as proof that he’d read 100 books. It’s truly a work of art that captures the struggles of working mothers. (And yes, she even got it notarized.)

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(Photo courtesy of Ashley Cranford Marshall)

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“As the Mother, I have been too lazy to write down each book in the year 2023. It’s been a long year, and quite frankly, I am ready to go to bed when I put him to bed.”

Working moms are just DONE for the school year. Honestly, who among us doesn’t feel this one? Ashley Cranford Marshall is the hero we need right now.

When Marshall’s son’s teacher read the affidavit out loud, she doubled over in laughter, saying she wanted to frame it.

So, how did the kindergarten court rule on this lawyer mom’s affidavit? This story has a very happy ending. Marshall’s son won the award for reading 100 books, and it was all thanks to his mother’s legal skills.


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Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.