There’s a lot of debate on the internet right now about a mom in Calgary who decided to go on a weeklong strike to protest her daughters’ messy habits (she has 3 teen girls…yikes). Some people—mostly other moms—are praising the woman for taking a stand, while others are saying she should have been more strict about chores and keeping her kids in line in the first place.
Now, I think her decision is awesome, if only because it shows some creativity in the face of what I can only imagine is a far more difficult thing than most of us can grasp. I’m a pretty neat guy—especially for a guy—but teenage me was a horrible, messy, lazy piece of crap with a terrible attitude. I have nothing but respect for my parents, but man oh man, when I was 15 you couldn’t pay me enough to listen to a word they had to say. It was like pulling teeth. And that, for better or for worse, is just what being a teenager is. Rare is the teenager who does what s/he is told most of the time, and even rarer is the one who takes initiative to help out when mom clearly needs it but won’t ask (my wife was one of these…she held off her rebellion til college).
Then, of course, there’s the aspect of walking a mile in someone’s shoes. It’s impossible and ignorant for any of us to suppose we understand what this family’s life is like day to day. Just because the mother felt she needed to do this, doesn’t mean she’s a bad mother who has no disciplinary instincts. And just because her daughters are messy doesn’t mean they’re bad kids without discipline.
That’s my rant. Anyway, I still think it’s awesome that this lady did this. It also reminds me of that episode of the Simpsons where Marge goes to Rancho Relaxo. Remember that? But even more awesome is the fact that she’s getting so much attention for it. Chances are, her daughters would not be impacted by it nearly as much were it not so publicly displayed. At this point, it’s been on TV and in the news in Canada, the US and Britain. Talk about shaming your kids to action—in a good way. I wonder if they’ve cleaned anything up yet.
What do you think about this mom’s decision to go on “strike”? Let us know in the comments.
