Re: parents on strike- I'm loving it

From: Maureen Galvin (maureen.galvin_at_comcastdotnet)
Date: 12/11/04 

Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 19:02:55 -0600

I kind of agree. I'd have those kids sleeping in the tent in the yard.
Parents need to put a roof over their heads (tent), clothes on their back
(they dont have to be nice, nor do they have to be clean), and food in their
stomaches (again, doesn't have to be tasty either). I'd set them up with a
cooler, sleeping bags and give them access to the house only to do their
dishes, use the restroom and to the laundry.

Maureen
"Barbara Carlson" <bbcarlson@snappydsl.net> wrote in message
news:hrqdnf61d4PRhifcRVn-1w@snappydsl.net...
> 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
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  • Re: Favorite Girl Scout Cookie?
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  • Re: parents on strike- Im loving it
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  • Re: Mixed sleeping conundrum?
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