This article reports on a study carried out in Newfoundland, Canada, which investigated how homework practices were experienced by families of eight-year-old children, and their siblings, and their parents. It documents, through institutional ethnography, how educational discourse transferred from schools to homes subsequently shaped everyday family life. It explores the demands and expectations that homework places on families and how different families experience homework differently; often creating frustrations and tensions depending on the resources available. It shows the various forms of cultural capital needed in order to carry out homework practices and how the lack of capital may contribute to frustrations in different households. All families in this study struggled with educational discourse related to homework, at one time or another, during their child's educational trajectory.