Parents Go On Strike, Move Out To Protest Messy Kids
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.
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."
Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed
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lol i guess they deserve it!
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Lilith Cherry
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