Parents on strike???

Gato_Solo

Gato_Solo

Out-freaking-standing OTC member
I was going to put this in 'Real World', but thought it would go better here...

Fed Up With Kids, Parents Go on Strike

ENTERPRISE, Fla. — 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!"

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.
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Seems to me, they should've tried a little 'negative reinforcement' when the kids were younger. Before anyone jumps on this, I have more...Negative reinforcement has been a tried and true psychological test since time began. ;)
 
Gato_Solo said:
Seems to me, they should've tried a little 'negative reinforcement' when the kids were younger. Before anyone jumps on this, I have more...Negative reinforcement has been a tried and true psychological test since time began. ;)
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"Negative reinforcement"... is that the one involving the application of the palm of hand on botty or slipper on botty? :D

A good sharp smack did wonders for mine amd my sister's behaviour...
 
ClaireBear said:
"Negative reinforcement"... is that the one involving the application of the palm of hand on botty or slipper on botty? :D

A good sharp smack did wonders for mine amd my sister's behaviour...
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i still shudder with fear when i think of my mothers slap. got my attention for sure.
 
[dripping sarcasm]But everyone knows corporal punishment is ineffective... :rolleyes: [/dripping sarcasm]
 
this seems like a good idea. I wonder if the kids will respond in a way the parents are hoping for.
 
unclehobart said:
Nothing like displaying ones own lack of parental skills in front of the whole world.
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Uh huh. Even if my house got to that point, which it wouldn't, I would bust some asses first, I still wouldn't do something like this. How embarrassing.
 
Even with the odd smack in my youth... my sis and I still do diddly around the house... I mean we wash and tidy, cook and clean but we don't really go out of our way to keep the place spotless. The apathy is getting worse too.

I reckon its all down to that fact that the home isn't "ours." By the time you get to you late teens (like the boy in question) or 20's and working you feel the need to move on and get your own place... I can tell you now that I'll be manically tidy and clean in my home... but the impetus just isn't there in my mum's home... :shrug:
 
I just think the kids are lazy because the parents didn't do any parenting when the kids were younger...:shrug:
 
Maybe the parents didn't do the right things at the right times. That makes them....human.

I love the idea. Humiliation works wonders on the psyche.

Negative reinforcement and punishment are, for the record, two entirely different concepts.

I say the 17 year old in this story is less than a year from being liberated anyway. When he's a legal adult, treat him as such. Rent is $X monthly and due on the 1st, late on the 5th of each month. Maid service, taxi service, chef service is extra and will be billed monthly, itemized. Late fees apply. Don't like it? Get the hell out.
 
I was raised by a type A personality Army Colonel. We did darn near everything. Noone touched my laundry after the age of 5 and we cooked more than half of the meals and were expected to keep everything outside of the parents bedroom fairly spotless at 6. The lawn mowing, raking, fertilizing was added at 7. Hedges and gutters by the age of 8. The penalty was always the buckle end of the belt 7-10 times.
 
unclehobart said:
I was raised by a type A personality Army Colonel. We did darn near everything. Noone touched my laundry after the age of 5 and we cooked more than half of the meals and were expected to keep everything outside of the parents bedroom fairly spotless at 6. The lawn mowing, raking, fertilizing was added at 7. Hedges and gutters by the age of 8. The penalty was always the buckle end of the belt 7-10 times.
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And look at what a fine person you turned out to be. :smoke:

My folks were very strict too, but more in an old school, overprotective sort of way. And I am a model citizen. :D
 
I'm a fairly nice guy and a typical model citizen... but I surely did rebel against the type A mantra. I rarely shave and I have a ponytail to the small of my back. I turned out to be more of an underachiever that still believed in superior levels of CYA. In fact, out of all of the common circle of 30+ friends from the high school days, I think that I come in second to HomeLAN. He was reared under a similar mantra and managed to surface into adulthood as an achiever instead of embittered.
 
SouthernN'Proud said:
I say the 17 year old in this story is less than a year from being liberated anyway. When he's a legal adult, treat him as such. Rent is $X monthly and due on the 1st, late on the 5th of each month. Maid service, taxi service, chef service is extra and will be billed monthly, itemized. Late fees apply. Don't like it? Get the hell out.
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Ahhhh! It sounds like a wonderful idea... but "bill" the young adult for "parenting" services and parent privilidges have to be revoked...

Its exactly the reason why neither me or my sis pay board even though we've offered a thousand times, tried to hand over cash and even get a direct debit sorted out.

If we were to pay then conversations beginning with...

"Where are you off to..."
"What time do you...."
"How dare you..."
"I don't like him/her/it..."

are no longer viable.

My parents still like to control our lives, pry and preach... even though at 22 and 24 we can and should make our own decisions and choices and damn well come in at 4am on a sunday morning if we please. :shrug:

Its a catch 22.
 
And you're modest too! (re: Unc)

In some ways, I'm still rebelling against that strict upbringing. I won't go into the details, but I suspect if I was less sheltered growing up, I'd have spent less time in adulthood seeking out things to piss off my parents. :devious:
 
Umm, thanks, but there are days when I don't really feel that fucking motivated. I also had a slightly less stark and more forgiving upbringing then I saw you getting. If nothing else, someone was always available to do things like cook dinner and make sure the house was well kept. We had chores, to be sure, but we were by no means expected to be self-sufficient.
 
You were always the wierd one because... *gasp*... your parents were actually still married. That was almost a novelty.
 
CB, if an adult child is paying rent, they certainly should have every priviledge and right to privacy etc as they would have in their own place. Otherwise it is hypocrisy at its finest. I agree with ya there. Boisterous parties would be grounds for eviction, same as a rented apartment though. Illegal activities (smokin dope, possession of bongs, etc.) likewise....get rid of it or get your ass out. And yes, when the kid comes home at 4AM, Mom and Dad have to bite their lips.

Can't have it both ways as a parent...or a child. Tough old world we live in, huh?
 
SouthernN'Proud said:
CB, if an adult child is paying rent, they certainly should have every priviledge and right to privacy etc as they would have in their own place. Otherwise it is hypocrisy at its finest. I agree with ya there. Boisterous parties would be grounds for eviction, same as a rented apartment though. Illegal activities (smokin dope, possession of bongs, etc.) likewise....get rid of it or get your ass out. And yes, when the kid comes home at 4AM, Mom and Dad have to bite their lips.

Can't have it both ways as a parent...or a child. Tough old world we live in, huh?
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Um, not really. Every lease I've ever seen includes the right for the owner to make inspections with notice, and eviction clauses (or cleanup by a third party at leasees expense) should the premesis be considered "unsanitary". Owners have to have clauses like that to protect themselves and their property from vermin. All kinds of vermin, from 2 legs on up.
 
chcr said:
[dripping sarcasm]But everyone knows corporal punishment is ineffective... :rolleyes: [/dripping sarcasm]
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You know, that reminds me... whatever happened to flavio?
 
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