Re: parents on strike- I'm loving it

From: Barbara Carlson (bbcarlson_at_snappydsl.net)
Date: 12/10/04 

Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 16:55:20 -0500

Gosh--and I'm a mother of three--I can't get up much sympathy. I'll be
d.......ed if my kids would drive me to be sleeping outside in a tent and
cooking on the barbecue!!!! Seems to me like irresponsible kids descent
from irresponsible parents! A friend of mine locked her son out when he
refused to mow the lawn. He called the police and reported he was being
abused. Police came and investigated and the policeman told the son if he
belonged to him he would have done a lot more than lock the door!!!! Of
course children don't respect parents who do not demand respect, and
deserve it!

Barb C.
"Jeannie Wilson" <jwilson421@comcastspamkills.net> wrote in message
news:Xns95BB90A8216BCjwilson421comcastnet@216.196.97.136...
> Two Florida Parents Go on Strike
> In Battle With the Kids, They Move Into the Front Yard
> By MIKE SCHNEIDER, AP
>
>
>
>
>
> ENTERPRISE, Fla. (Dec. 9) - The dishes, garbage and dirty laundry would
> pile up for days when Cat and Harlan Barnard's teenage children refused to
> do their chores. So the Barnards went on strike, moving out of their house
> and into a domed tent set up in their front driveway. The parents refuse
to
> cook, clean or drive for their children - Benjamin, 17, and Kit, 12 -
until
> they shape up.
>
> "We've tried reverse psychology, upside down psychology, spiral psychology
> and nothing has motivated them for any length of time," said Cat Barnard,
> 45, as she sat in a lawn chair at an umbrella-covered table.
>
> The strike took Benjamin and Kit by surprise. They came home from school
> Monday to find their mother outside with handwritten signs that read
> "Parents on Strike" and "Seeking Cooperation and Respect!"
>
>
>
> AP
> Cat Barnard sits in her driveway in Enterprise, Fla., near the tent where
> and she and her husband slept.
>
>
> Cat Barnard, a stay-at-home mom, and her 56-year-old husband, a government
> social services worker, decided their children needed to learn about
> empathy and responsibility.
>
> The Barnards unsuccessfully tried smiley-face charts and withholding
> allowances to get their children to do chores. They even sought help from
a
> psychologist.
>
> The tipping point may have been when Benjamin didn't offer to help his
> sweating, struggling mother work on the lawn Sunday, even though she
should
> have been recovering from oral surgery.
>
> "I had absolutely no motherly guilt after that," Cat Bernard said.
>
> The Barnards have slept on air mattresses in the tent and have barbecued
> while their children fended for themselves with frozen TV dinners. The
> parents only go inside to shower and use the bathroom.
>
> The strike seems to have struck a nerve. The phone has been ringing
> incessantly with requests for media interviews from around the country.
>
> Passers-by from this bedroom community between Orlando and Daytona Beach
> have shouted out words of encouragement. One woman driving past the
> Barnards' house rolled down her car window Wednesday and shouted "Good for
> you! You should put the kids outside!"
>
> Benjamin returned from school on Wednesday to find a dozen reporters in
his
> parents' front lawn. He refused to say anything to them and went into the
> house followed by his mother, who tried to console him.
>
> A well-intentioned neighbor reported the Barnards to sheriff's deputies,
> who checked up on the family three times Tuesday. They were satisfied that
> the children were safe.
>
> One of Kit's teachers also stopped by the house, thinking she had been
> abandoned, after the teenager said that her parents had moved out of the
> house.
>
> Cat Barnard said she and her husband will keep up the strike until they
see
> some changes.
>
> "If we have to stick it out here until Christmas, then ho, ho, ho, we're
> out here," she said.
>
>
> 12/09/04 07:43 EST

Relevant Pages

  • Re: parents on strike- Im loving it
    ... I'd have those kids sleeping in the tent in the yard. ... Parents need to put a roof over their heads, ... So the Barnards went on strike, ...
    (sci.med.transcription)
  • Re: Favorite Girl Scout Cookie?
    ... in rain & high winds lots of times with his parents. ... showing the kids how to set up their tents, ... hands and had his tent up, with the help of another kid, in about two ... people will progress faster than others. ...
    (rec.food.cooking)
  • Re: parents on strike- Im loving it
    ... > Two Florida Parents Go on Strike ... So the Barnards went on strike, moving out of their house ...
    (sci.med.transcription)
  • parents on strike- Im loving it
    ... Two Florida Parents Go on Strike ... So the Barnards went on strike, moving out of their house ... The Barnards unsuccessfully tried smiley-face charts and withholding ...
    (sci.med.transcription)
  • Re: parents on strike- Im loving it
    ... > Two Florida Parents Go on Strike ... So the Barnards went on strike, ... > and nothing has motivated them for any length of time," said Cat Barnard, ...
    (sci.med.transcription)