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Thread: Parents 'strike' over idle children

  1. #1
    AO Guinness Monster MURACU's Avatar
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    Parents 'strike' over idle children

    Ran across this while looking for something else and couldn't resist posting it. . I find it totally absurd. I normally find " DO IT" works just fine. Of course my son knows better than to push me so far that I get annoyed. Last time he lost his latest saved games on warcraft frozen throne. Of course now he is trying to harden the computer (he is only ten).



    Parents 'strike' over idle children

    Cat and Harlan Barnard's story has struck a nerve across the US
    A mother and father say they have gone on strike over their children's lack of help around the house.
    Cat and Harlan Barnard have pitched a tent in the front drive of their Florida home and erected signs, one of which says: "Parents on Strike!".

    They say they will stay there until Benjamin, 17, and Kit, 12, start to do their share of the household chores.

    The stand-off, in Enterprise, Florida, is being monitored by the police, welfare officers and teachers.

    Mrs Barnard said she and her 56-year-old husband, a government social services worker, had tried everything to get their children to act more responsibly.

    They tried smiley-face charts, withholding allowances and even sought help from a psychologist.

    "We've tried reverse psychology, upside down psychology, spiral psychology and nothing has motivated them for any length of time," said Mrs Barnard, 45.

    She said the final straw came when her son failed to offer to help her mow the lawn one Sunday, even though she should have been resting following a medical operation.

    "I had already made the decision to do it [strike] then, but I had absolutely no motherly guilt about it," she was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying.

    Media interest

    Since Monday, the parents have slept on airbeds in their tent and eaten barbecue meals, only going inside to use the shower.

    The children have frozen meals to keep them going inside the house.


    The parents say they will stay outside until their children change
    Officers from the sheriff's department have called at the home three times to check on the situation but have not tried to intervene.

    One of Kit's teachers also stopped by, concerned after hearing that her parents had left home.

    The Barnards' story has been picked up by the media across the US, and they have been inundated with interview requests.

    One woman shouted "Good for you! You should put the kids outside!" as she drove past their home, the AP reported.

    But others are less supportive. "One woman said I should be ashamed for creating emotional stress on my children," Mrs Barnard said.

    "I told her, 'Well, they've been doing it to me for years.'"

    The action appears to have angered Ben, who described the strike and ensuing press attention as "extremely inconvenient".

    But his sister, Kit, said she understood. "I guess we don't help out as much as we could. I'm going to change."

    \"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.\"
    \"The reason we are so pleased to find other people\'s secrets is that it distracts public attention from our own.\"
    Oscar Wilde(1854-1900)

  2. #2
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Hmmmmmmmmmmm................

    I dont see anything that 56 days in Colchester Military Corrective Training Centre wouldn't solve..............I will reserve judgement on the parents until later ( there are some "waiting lists" I need to check out first )

    Cheers

  3. #3
    AO's Resident Redneck The Texan's Avatar
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    why are the parents outside in the tent? they should put the kids out there lol i know my parents would put me out there if i ever got that bad but, im kinda old for that now. but not my little brother :-)
    Git R Dun - Ty
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  4. #4
    ********** |ceWriterguy
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    Gimme 15 minutes and a razor strop and I'll solve the strike. First for the kids for being the kids they were raised to be, then for the parents for being IDIOTS and not spanking their kids when needed. Nuff said.
    Even a broken watch is correct twice a day.

    Which coder said that nobody could outcode Microsoft in their own OS? Write a bit and make a fortune!

  5. #5
    the beign of authority kurt_der_koenig's Avatar
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    Gimme 15 minutes and a razor strop and I'll solve the strike. First for the kids for being the kids they were raised to be, then for the parents for being IDIOTS and not spanking their kids when needed. Nuff said.
    I'm with you on that but you got to remember a parents gotta be scared nowadays. If I remember correctly a parent can be imprisioned or something on those lines for 'physically' punishing their children. Don't have google evidence , have to get back on with that....

    kurt

  6. #6
    ********** |ceWriterguy
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    Kurt - Hint on your research - check the local laws in New Jersey - my first ex is scared to death to spank my youngest daughter, and her other kids by her current marriage. Texas (thankfully) has no such 'corporal punishment' law - we can whip 'em as long as we dont leave whelps or bruises. To my understanding California also has such 'no hitting' laws as well - I'd honestly be surprised if they didn't. Let's see what the world's come to when we listen to liberal child psychologists...

    Mom and Dad on strike.

    Kids divorcing parents.

    Teenage pregnancy, suicide, VD, and drug usage at an all time high.

    Teenage crimes at an all time high.

    Now I can't post links on any of these either - just junk I've been hearing on the news for years now, but I'm sure it's out there somewhere (too lazy to go google it up). Isn't it time to get back to that 'spare the rod, spoil the child' mentality?
    Even a broken watch is correct twice a day.

    Which coder said that nobody could outcode Microsoft in their own OS? Write a bit and make a fortune!

  7. #7
    AO's Fluffy Bunny cdkj's Avatar
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    As they say children learn from their parents. And parents got to learn when to put their foot down. As a parent myself i don't physical punish (don't get me wrong i will smack the behind when need it would have to something that was endangering oneself or others) i do something much worst i take from them and freedom is on the top of the list. I read that they took there allowances away from them and use smiley. Why do they get allowances in the first place if they don't help with chores and for smileys that only works for children under the age of 5. i would make them earn that allowance. In Pennsylvania they have a no hitting law which makes me laugh and they wonder why children are the way they are.There is a big different between correcting and abuseing.There one more thing i would like to say no judge or state worker is going to tell me i can't smack my child either i bought them in to this world and i'll take them out it too
    I had to google 'jfgi' to see what it meant. The irony is overwhelming.

  8. #8
    AO Decepticon CXGJarrod's Avatar
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    Black Ice: I had not heard that about California. Do you have any info on it? I believe that there is a law about teachers hitting students, but I had not heard about anything regarding parents. I was spanked as a kid and think that I came out ok.
    N00b> STFU i r teh 1337 (english: You must be mistaken, good sir or madam. I believe myself to be quite a good player. On an unrelated matter, I also apparently enjoy math.)

  9. #9
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    Time to clean the filter in the gene pool. It says the husband is a government social services worker, hopefully it's not in a department that deals with children.
    \"You got a mouth like an outboard motor..all the time putt putt putt\" - Foghorn Leghorn

  10. #10
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    .....think that I came out ok.
    Some ppl here may disagree from you about this matter
    Nihil has the best solution: some time in a military school will help boys to see things with "another perspective"...
    Meu sítio

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    If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to brake.

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