A dad shamed his 'stroppy' kids who whinged about washing up into doing the household chore - by sticking up a child labour poster highlighting the kids' harrowing plight. James Richards was sick of cleaning up after his two eldest kids, Ryan Richards, eight, and 10-year-old Isabella Richards, and dealing with their complaints when asked to help.
So when the dad-of-three spotted a snap on Facebook of glum-looking oyster shuckers who regularly worked 12 hours each day, inspiration struck. The haunting picture, part of sociologist Lewis Hine's investigation into the living conditions of children for the US's National Child Labor Committee, shows three bleary-eyed children with dirty overalls and messy hair staring sadly into the camera.
The kids were just three of thousands of children sent out to work from a young age wielding sharp knives to shuck, or open, oyster shells from around 3.30am until 5pm six days a week. The 43-year-old printed the harrowing image off and stuck it to his kitchen wall along with a hand-written note explaining how child labourers used to 'get up at 4am, six days per week' to work.
His note ends by sternly declaring 'so don't you dare complain about doing the washing up once in a while!'. The retail company director says Ryan's reaction to spotting the poster and being ordered to do the dishes that night was to throw a tantrum like noughties sitcom character Kevin from Kevin and Perry.
After he calmed down, James says Ryan and his sister felt empathetic towards the kids, after learning more about their harrowing experiences. A week after learning about the children's plight, the pair meekly donned their marigolds and helped wash, dry and put away the dishes. After sharing a picture of the poster on Facebook, social media users have praised James' outside-the-box thinking.
James, from Maidstone, Kent, said: "When we asked them to do the washing up, the older two would throw the most horrendous strops. They sounded like the most horrible and most entitled little brats ever. My boy threw himself to the floor like Kevin, from Kevin and Perry. He was stamping and having a tantrum. I can understand why they're having this extreme reaction and it's because they've got no point of context.
"They're being disturbed from what they want to do. Five minutes after their horrible displays of brattishness, they're chatting away, enjoying it, and pulling me up on not washing the bubbles off. It's about that first step.
"I found myself on a Friday night taking their cups, saucers and plates out of their rooms. I thought 'I've had enough of this, they're going to start taking responsibility'.
"I saw the image on Facebook and it struck a chord with me, it was a eureka moment. It's educational, it's behavioural and I don't see any issues. It's been a miracle and sorted the moaning out. It's opened up a Pandora's box of positives.
"I wanted to give them some context to what children around 100 years ago were doing as opposed to what the children in the present day are doing. I was relieved to find their reaction was one of empathy.
"They told me to take it down because they were horrified, but sometimes you've got to show them how good they've got it. I didn't want to shame them into washing up but it's seeing that spark of humanity in the empathy that they showed. It set up a conversation about oyster shuckers."
James used to make Ryan and Isabella take turns drying and washing the dishes, but it became too difficult to prise Ryan away from video game Fortnite and Isabella from her arts and craft set. James, who now jokingly calls his kids oyster shuckers, quipped their third child Sofia Richards, three, loves washing up as she gets to splash the water around.
He insists he and wife Natalie Richards, 40, aren't claiming to be 'parents of the year' but they believe the kids need to learn that washing up is part of the cooking routine. Civil servant Natalie admits she didn't know anything about James' stunt before he did it, but hopes the 'positive message' will be remembered by her kids.
Natalie said: "He didn't tell me he was doing it, so when I saw it, I just thought it was funny. I'm glad he's done it. He's a wonderful dad. Hopefully, it'll save me some time and effort in future. Next time we ask them to do it, they might stop and think that we're not being unreasonable.
"It carries a good message for them and for adults too. It's good to remember how fortunate we are, it puts things into perspective. Kids nowadays sit there and expect their parents to wait on them and clean up after them. I don't think that's very healthy.
"A lot of mothers will feel the aggravation of asking them to do it, then battling them, then standing over and watching them do it because you've got to teach them to do it. A lot of mums will just give up and do it themselves but that's not teaching them to be well-rounded human beings. The main job as a parent is to protect them and get them ready for the real world."
Natalie's post jokingly captioned 'my husband's idea of a motivational poster to the kids' has earned almost 500 comments filled with praise for the unorthodox act.
