Hatrack River Forum: who's in charge here

This is topic who's in charge here in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by babager (Member # 6700) on :

I don't understand how parents let it get to this point. My kids are almost 15 and almost 10. They do their chores or they get grounded. End of story.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041209/ap_on_fe_st/parents_on_strike_3

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

Yeesh. Well, I guess it's better than if they just continued to let them get away with not helping. [Dont Know]

Posted by Boris (Member # 6935) on :

quote:
"It's extremely inconvenient," said their son, Ben Barnard. "Every time the phone rings, we have to run outside to give it to them."

Wow. These kids are SPOILED!!!

Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :

The simple solution is to not run the phone out.

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

mack, whose side are you ON?!

Posted by Toretha (Member # 2233) on :

wow. just...WOW

Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :

No one's.

That just seems like a duh answer.

Posted by hugh57 (Member # 5527) on :

Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson were right. These are The Crazy Years.

Posted by Raia (Member # 4700) on :

That's sick. They should be ashamed to call themselves a family.

Those kids are just sick.

Posted by Zan (Member # 4888) on :

Here's more about it from the local paper.

quote:
Cat Barnard, however, said she thinks the strike may already be working. Tuesday, she said, Kit washed her own clothes for the first time.

Why is this an issue? Why was she washing her clothes before? I can't believe a 17-yr old girl is going to go to school in dirty clothes too many times before she starts washing them herself if Mom and Dad refuse to do them.

Posted by babager (Member # 6700) on :

IF my kids ever got that bad I wouldn't be the one on the lawn. There may be some legal issues with throwing your kids out in the yard but there would be nothing to stop me from renting a storage shed and storing all their stuff until they've earned it back. I mean literally clean out their rooms, leave nothing but an old army cot and a blanket. No T.V., no Radio, no phone, none of the "necessities" that a teenager thinks they need to survive.

Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :

[Confused]

How the heck did those children grow up like that?! And frankly I couldn't care less how those people manage their family. "News"?! Bleah, just some spoiled kids, as Boris already said. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :

Somehow I don't think the kids made the situation entirely on their own.

Personally, I'm allergic to doing housework around a perfectly ablebodied child slumped on the couch watching TV. My mother had the same allergy, come to think of it. It must be genetic. [Evil]

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

Huh. jeniwren, I think that must mean we're related. [Big Grin]

Posted by Audeo (Member # 5130) on :

quote:
Why is this an issue? Why was she washing her clothes before? I can't believe a 17-yr old girl is going to go to school in dirty clothes too many times before she starts washing them herself if Mom and Dad refuse to do them.

If you read a little closer the son is 17, the daughter is twelve, which isn't too young to wash clothes, but makes it a little better. As for the son not doing his laundry, it wouldn't surprise me if he would wear dirty clothes before he'd bother to wash anything. Another note, many 17 year old girls have sufficient clothing so as to not have to worry about doing laundry too often, though they might have to start wearing less favored outfits when it came down to it.

Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :

Well the simplest solution is the one at my house.

You're not allowed to leave the house to go to school or church, or anywhere without wearing clean clothes.

Once you're old enough to do your own laundry you wash your own clothes.

If you don't, and your clothes are dirty, you either wash them or leave the house naked.

I've never had any problem getting my 11 year old daughter to wash and put away her clothes.

Posted by Katarain (Member # 6659) on :

They've actually allowed their children to push them out of their own house?? That is absolutely ridiculous. If you want your children to do something, don't do it for them. You don't need to move out. Frankly, they should have started training their children years and years ago.

My mom used to bug me about doing my laundry... but she always did it before it got to the point where it bothered me. I always PLANNED to do it, but she beat me to it and then complained about it.

As for the dishes, at the point, if they haven't taught their children to do chores, then they'll just have to either buck up and wash the dishes themselves or refuse to feed the children at all.. or clean their own dishes for supper and make the kids wash a plate before they can have any food.

But move outside??? How incredibly stupid.

Yeah... that'll show 'em. I'm sure the kids really are going to straighten up now... doing one load of laundry doesn't mean you're winning.

-Katarain

Posted by LadyDove (Member # 3000) on :

For me, parenting is alot harder than house work.

It would be much easier for me to pick-up after the boys, wash their clothes, mop the floor, etc. than to teach them to do the same work and praise them when their equal effort yields less than perfect results.

My boys have grown-up picking-up after themselves, with me working right next to them. Many times, I'd have to bite my tongue as they cleaned by taking ALL the toys out of the toybox, used too much Windex, too many paper towels and begged to help me clean floor when their feet were muddy.

I can easily see where a parent would take the easy route and not teach the kids the basics of taking care of themselves. I've known many a manger who was just as inept at instructing their staff and releasing control to those people.

I don't blame the kids for what has happened. Parents are responsible for teaching their kids basic life skills, and, in my opinion, taking care of yourself and your immediate surroundings and possessions are basic life skills.

I find it rather disgusting that the parents in the article had to throw a public tantrum in order to rectify the duties that they've neglected.

Posted by Black Fox (Member # 1986) on :

It comes from the fact that though we educate a good amount of the populace few know how to teach or lead. Though I honestly won't go about how most people teach or love their children. For the most part it seems a lot of kids just end up being forgotten about to a point, even in "good" families.

Posted by blacwolve (Member # 2972) on :

I don't think not doing your laundry is a sign that you're completely lazy. I don't do my own laundry when I'm at home for a variety of reasons. What I do do is help put everyone's clothes away, help clean dishes, vacuum, clean the bathrooms. I don't do nearly as much as I should, or as my mom does; but I do help around the house and everything that's asked of me.

So yea, what I'm trying to say is that I don't think the laundry is the proof that the children are lazy, just another consequence of a much larger problem.