Posted on 12/08/2004 7:16:25 AM PST by Ellesu
Parents Go On Strike, Move Out To Protest Messy Kids Teens Apparently Refuse To Help With Housework
POSTED: 7:47 am EST December 8, 2004
DELTONA, Fla. -- The dishes, garbage and dirty laundry were piling up and Cat and Harlan Barnard were getting no help from their two children.
After begging and pleading with their 17-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter to help out around the house, the Barnards decided they were fed up. So they went on strike - and moved out to the front yard.
"This was our last-ditch effort," Cat Barnard said.
Since Monday morning, the Barnards have lived in a tent in their front yard, going inside the house only to use the restroom or shower. The couple sits on lawn chairs and roasts marshmallows over a hibachi.
Who're the parents and who are the kids? Can they not TELL their children to do something, and if refused, make them do it or make the punishment worse than the alternative?
A better tactic would have been to not wash the kids clothes or allow them to use any of the household items.
Since Monday morning, the Barnards have lived in a tent in their front yard, going inside the house only to use the restroom or shower. The couple sits on lawn chairs and roasts marshmallows over a hibachi.
Kids will far outlast the parents. Parents lose.
Wasn't there a movie back in the early 90's with this as the subject? I want to say it starred John Ritter . . . not sure, just barely remembering it.
Although I suppose the publicity might shame the kids into behaving, I doubt it because their own parents couldn't do that, and their friends probably think it's cool that they managed to evict their parents from their own home.
I'd lock up the car keys and stop fixing meals, just for starters . . .
After his first night in the yard, Harlan Barnard, 56, said he woke up feeling stiff, but liberated.
"It was like I'd done something to take back my little corner of the world," he said.
Their children were confused on the first day when they came home from school. But their son, Ben Barnard, a senior at Deltona High School, said the parental strike is already having consequences.
"It's extremely inconvenient," Ben said. "Every time the phone rings, we have to run outside to give it to them."
A neighbor called a local radio call-in show on Tuesday, bringing attention to their strike. A teacher of their daughter, Kit, made a visit and the Volusia County Sheriff's office stopped by three times Tuesday night to check on the children.
Whether the couple's actions could be regarded as abandonment depends on how much guidance the parents are still providing and "if the children are suffering as a result," said Carrie Hoeppner, a spokeswoman with the Department of Children & Families in Orange County.
Ruth Peters, a Clearwater clinical psychologist and author who specializes in treating children and adolescents, said the tent tactic could easily backfire on the parents.
She doesn't expect the children to clean up the house or do any chores without their parents living under the same roof. And it could give the kids star status with their peers because they drove their parents out.
"All this does is inconvenience the parent. It doesn't inconvenience the kids at all," Peters said. "I can't imagine the kids begging their parents to come back."
Both children acknowledge they could do more to help out around the house. But they expect their parents to give up the stunt in a few more days.
But Cat Barnard says the strike may already be paying dividends. She noted that her daughter washed her own clothes for the first time on Tuesday.
With Florida's mild winter, a freezer full of frozen dinners and the children down to plasticware, the couples said they are ready to ride out the standoff.
"This is war," Cat Barnard said. "I love my babies, but I don't like what they're doing."
Meanwhile, the kids inside are celebrating, "We won!"
Parents 0
This is just pathetic. Just giving up for 17 years of not enforcing any responsibility in their kids. I have a SIL like that, her kids (15 and 11) have absolutely NO resposibility around the house. Now they complain that they can't get them to do anything, and marvel at the fact that our 5 year old cleans up after herself and helps out with little jobs.
I just tell them that it's just because that's the way it's ALWAYS been, ever since she was old enough to comprehend putting things away. As a toddler, it was fun to see when her little friends (especially the boys) would come over and start blindly dumping toys around the house. She would just look at them with a look of shock on her face. And the look on the friends when "pick up" time came around.
It's really not that hard, you just can't wait until their already grown to try to instill responsibility.
Where have these folks been for the past 17 years?
These parents lost the war (and believe me it IS a war!)
when the kids were in kindergarten! The day I'D MOVE OUT
of my house because the kids were impudent, sassy, beligerent, etc...all of which I ENABLED THEM TO DO...is
the day I should see a Head-Shrink!
There are people with absolutely NO parenting skills.
Worse, these kids are being let loose on the rest of
society. I'm sure the teachers have had trouble with
their attitudes. Bosses are not going to tolerate it.
Who is to blame? The idiots camped in the tent!
That's pretty much what I've always done with my daughter. When it was time to pick up, we would mention it once. She knew that if I had to pick them up, they would go away.
The trick is, and what I have to remind my wife of, is that if you threaten it, you HAVE to follow through with it. Once you back down, you've lost.
How silly of these parents,I'd kick the kids out in the tent in the yard.although at my house the kids love to do backyard camping so that wouldnt work here but... i do have a messy 11 yr.old and we go around and round over her room,a couple of days ago my sister had taped an Ophra show about the terrible filth some people live in,it was horrible the way some of folks lived, I showed it to my daughter and didnt say a word to her afterwards,guess what? she cleaned her room up as well as an 11 yr.can! as far as the rest of the house goes both kids have designated chores and if they want to test me by not doing said chores it will be worse for them than for me:) and they know this so they do said chores.besides as i explained to them a long time ago the day you work and pay half the house payment around this place is the day you stop with chores.
PS that Ophra show was the first one i'd seen are the women on that show all that ditzy?they all seemed on med's to me.
Spare the rod spoil.............
This is the most pathetic couple of nutcases ive ever seen.someone please haul them off the free clinic.Oh and PUT SOME CLOTHES ON YOU IDIOTS ITS WINTER AROUND HERE.
ROFLMAO! I haven't been posting long and I tell ya, I've had to wrap my computer screen with saran wrap to keep from spitting coffee on it while I read here.
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