Parents Go on Strike, Move to Front Yard

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Cat Barnard sits in her driveway in Enterprise, Fla. Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2004, near the tent where and she and her husband, Harlan slept. The Barnards moved out of the house and set up the tent in the driveway to go on strike because their children, Benjamin, 17, and Kit, 12, refused to do household chores. The parents won't cook, clean or drive their children until they shape up.(AP Photo/Peter Cosgrove)

By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press Writer
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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