Mom goes on strike to get her husband to help with chores

By Jake Meeus-Jones via SWNS

A mom who nearly left her partner because she was "fed up with him not helping with household chores" went on strike - and says it worked.

Karla Loft, 32, says she's spent most of her entire 11-year relationship keeping her house tidy, without much help from her partner, Carl Scott, 42, a youth work business owner.

From cooking, cleaning and dusting to washing up, looking after their children and cleaning bathrooms, Karla claims the majority of the housework and childcare fell on her.

Karla says she would often spend the day cleaning up after their children and Carl would complain if the house looked messy when he came home.

She even joked about wearing a GoPro camera throughout her day so Carl could see how much she was doing.

Karla eventually became so "tired and exhausted" and even considered leaving Carl as it was like "speaking to a brick wall".

The mom-of-two soon reached the end of her tether and felt she had run out of options to get him to change.

That was until the family was selected to appear on the Channel 5 show 'Mum's on Strike'.

The show sees mothers go on 'strike' by leaving their partners to fend for themselves for seven days.

Describing the show as a "blessing in disguise", Karla said her strike enabled Carl to see what it was like to "not have any support."

Since the show, she says their lives have completely transformed and Carl helps out "so much more".

Karla, a stay-at-home mom and co-founder of a youth inclusion program, from Hastings, Sussex, said: "It has changed our lives as a family.

"Carl had always been a bit of a lazy person in the household.

"He's such a workaholic but not as much in the house and I couldn't make him change.

"But those seven days on the TV show made him take a walk in my shoes and that made him realize exactly what I have to do at home and how hard it is.

"There's always something to do - if it's tidying up with the kids to hoovering.

"It's gone from me feeling like I didn't know if I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him to knowing 100 percent I do want to."

Carl, co-founder of a youth project, said: "I've been able to see the graft that Karla puts in and it's opened my eyes to how much work there is to do in the household."

Before she went on strike, Karla claimed Carl would put pressure on her to constantly make the house spotless.

She said: "It was so difficult.

"He was so oblivious to things that needed doing.

"None of it seemed to exist to him.

"I remember we once wrote down what we thought needed doing and I think he had four things on his list and mine was a full-side of A4 paper.

"It was like getting through to a brick wall - it didn't matter what I said, he would never get it and never change.

"If anything he'd put more pressure on me.

"I would have cleaned up the whole kitchen, then breakfast, then clean again and then he comes in after dinner and it looks like a bomb's hit it and he'd huff and puff as if to say I hadn't done anything."

In the months leading up to her strike, Karla says she even considered leaving Carl.

She said: "I felt awful, I felt like I wasted all these years trying to train him into being a bit better around the house.

"I'd stuck with him as long as I possibly could. I'd look forward and I didn't know what I was doing. It was so exhausting."

Carl said: "Because I've always been work work work, I'd put all my energy into work and away from the house

"But it is hard graft and I took a lot of what she was doing for granted and then we'd have arguments about her leaving and I would think it was quite extreme.

"But after being on the show, I saw her views 100% and how hard it is - I had a completely different mindset."

When Karla and Carl's episode began filming, Karla was worried about being away from the kids.

She said: "They put me in a hotel for seven nights and it was worrying being away from the kids and I was still worried he'd forget to do lots of things.

"But I knew it could only go one of two ways. It works or it doesn't.

"He was effectively living my life for seven days and he felt what it was like to not have any support.

"He was the one with all the responsibilities and doing the housework and looking after the children and being rushed off of his feet.

"I don't think he showered for the first three days!

"From some of the footage, I thought he was slacking a bit and then you could see how much he was struggling as he started doing jobs that he didn't even realize existed."

Carl said: "I must have had 'dad' shouted at me 50 million times in the space of 10 seconds by the kids.

"Constantly picking things up and tidying things.

"It's opened my eyes that if there's bits on the floor she's probably been around 15 times already."

The couple say they have now become more of a "team" working together.

Karla said: "He helps out so much now.

"If he comes back and sees the house is in a bit of a mess he won't put any pressure on me or he'll offer to make dinner and asks me to sit down and have a break.

"He'll grab the hoover if it needs doing or he'll take our daughter to bed and lay next to her to get her to sleep every night, which is lovely.

"He contributes a lot and he knows what he needs to get done now.

"He's much better with the children and he's arranged his calendar so he has more family time - he's just so much more family-orientated."

Carl said: "It's helped the relationship as well. We get on so much better now. We're on the road to getting married now so it's really helped."

Karla and Carl's episode aired on Sunday (28/07) on Channel 5.