The issue of homework is now uppermost in many parents' and teachers' minds. Researchers are questioning homework's effectiveness as an educational tool. Policy makers are thinking twice about what to do about it while kids have their fingers crossed. In two national surveys conducted by the authors, they have discovered a wide range of opinions--and enormous tension--about homework. This article presents the perspectives of parents and teachers about homework based on two separate surveys. The first--"Homework Realities: A Canadian Study of Parental Opinions and Attitudes"--was a survey of 1094 caregivers and of 2072 children across Canada which was conducted in 2007, and the second--"Teacher Perspectives on Homework"--is a survey of 945 teachers across Canada. What the authors learned from these surveys is that homework really is problematic. As they examined the data, a number of issues emerged and interestingly, so did a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation that cause tension between home, school, policy-makers, and children. Both surveys point to stress as a major issue. Parents recognize that considerable time and family stress is invested in homework. For teachers, creating quality assignments is a challenge. One factor that seems highly significant and related to a number of issues is the question of homework expectations. Respondents expressed concerns that too often the assignments were not clear, that expectations were too high for the child to accomplish and required parental assistance, and that there was inadequate accommodation for English language learners and students with learning disabilities. (Contains 3 notes.)