Ah, see he isn't playing angles here. His mother is just very lax about his homework, because she forgets too. At my place, the rule is that homework is done before anything else, whereas at her place, she says, "Oh, do it later!" and then forgets to make sure he did it later. He's only ten, so I don't see a problem with checking to make sure he got his work done. He's at the age where he's just starting to form his own study habits and I'd rather him be quite dilligent about them, hence enforcing the structure now, and then his mother undermines all that by not paying attention to it. Then she gets into arguments with him, assuming that at ten, he should already have these miraculously rigid study habits that she's never had, ever.

This is why I'm taking primary custody after this year, so I can best gethim ready for his later years of schooling and I can be there full-time for him.