I went on a mother’s strike and left my family until my husband took action

Karla Loft, 32, stands in the kitchen, mopping the floor as her three children tear up the recently tidied living room. She can’t wait for the day to be over.

She still has to put away the toys, make the beds and cook dinner before she bathes the children.

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Karla has been up since 7am, handling daily household chores, entertaining the kids and doing administrative work for a youth project she helps run.

When her fiancé Carl Scott, 42, arrives home at 6pm, you’d expect the pressure of being a mom to be off, but Karla is at her “multitasking peak.”

Instead of greeting her and offering to help, her partner of 11 years begins to grumble about the state of the house.

“The tip from the kitchen,” he groans.

“The living room needs vacuuming and the kids are already driving me crazy.”

That’s when the mother of three and model went berserk. She decided to give up her household chores for a week. The resulting chaos will be revealed in tonight’s episode of Mums on Strike on Channel 5.

“I went on strike for a week to get my fiancé to clean,” she explains in this exclusive interview with Fabulous.

“Radical action was needed. I ran away and spent a week in a hotel.”

Radical measures were taken and Karla even decided to call off the wedding with her fiancé Carl.

“I never stopped cleaning and taking care of the kids while I worked, and all he did was complain,” Karla says.

“Carl never saw how hard I worked. He never helped with housework or cooking. We started arguing all the time. Our relationship was on the edge.

“If we were to survive as a family and a couple, I had to strike. I had to force Carl to step into my shoes and do the work himself.

“It was make or break.”

Karla lives in Hastings, Sussex with her partner of 11 years, Carl Scott, 42, a youth projects manager, and their three children Alfie, 13, Tyler, 9, and four-year-old Maddison.

According to Karla, Carl always gave 110% of his time as a youth project manager, but did nothing at home. He assumed that the housework was easy and he didn’t need any help.

“Carl is obsessed with the job he does,” she explains.

“Over the years, he has forgotten what it is like to run a household, take care of the children and work part-time.”

Carl’s disdain for housework, cooking and childcare had become so bad that his long-suffering fiancée had called off their wedding plans.

“We had planned to get married last year, but instead we were fighting all the time, so I felt like I had no choice,” she says.

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Karla says her strategy to show Carl she worked just as hard as he did began when she signed up for Channel 5’s Mums on Strike.

“I signed up for the show hoping that it would give Carl more respect for the work I’ve done,” she says.

“Our relationship was hanging by a thread. I needed a radical solution that would work.”

When the family was hired for the TV series, Carl assumed they would film their daily lives.

“I never expected Karla to walk away, it was a turn of events I didn’t see coming,” says Carl.

“The crew filmed us at home for two days and I thought it was a breeze.

“When I got home on the third night, I saw a video message from Karla saying she was on strike.

“I went into shock. I thought, this is not going to happen, I have a full schedule of work tomorrow. I panicked,” he admitted.

“I felt sick. It wasn’t what I expected or what I signed up for.”

Karla stayed in a hotel for seven days and forced herself to relax, while Carl took care of the housework and the children.

“I had never been away from the kids for more than a day and it wasn’t easy. I didn’t realize how exhausted I was,” she says.

Back home, Carl had convinced himself that caring for the children and the household would be ‘easy’.

“After the first few hours I was a mess and so was the house,” he admits.

“I can’t multitask, I’ve always just focused on my work.

“But taking care of children and constantly cleaning up messes was a shock to the system,” Carl says.

“When I put the kids at the lunch table, I thought I still had time to do the dishes in the kitchen.

“One of the kids spilled a drink and then I was left with a mess in the dining room and a mess in the kitchen.

“Within a few hours I realized I had no idea how much Karla did all day long.

“Multitasking and doing multiple small chores like vacuuming, mopping, cleaning separate rooms, and then taking three kids with you is like chasing kittens.

“It’s impossible.”

Meanwhile, Karla got the chance to give her fiancé a list of the chores he had always refused to do.

“I had asked Carl a hundred times to clean the aquarium for me, but he flatly refused,” she says.

“When I went on strike, that job was at the top of my list.”

Carl added: “It was disgusting. That was the worst part for me. I realised I’m a guy who thinks loading the dishwasher is an exhausting task.”

Carl admits that his seven days as “daycare dad” and “multitasking with Manny” nearly “drove him crazy.”

“At 11 p.m. I collapsed on my bed and realized I still had some emails to answer,” he says.

“Karla going on strike showed me that I had never understood what it was like to be a working mother.”

When the mother of three returned, Karla told her she had met a new man.

“He promised never to complain about a bit of dirt on the floor again and now he does 50% of the housework, cooking and childcare,” she says.

“He’s a new man, it’s amazing.”

The couple now uses a weekly schedule so they know who cooks and who cleans.

If I hadn’t gone on strike, we wouldn’t have survived

Karla Scott

“That means I know what I need to do and I can fit that into my day,” says Carl.

Karla says the fights are over and they are planning their wedding again.

“We are getting married next year, this experience really saved our relationship,” she says.

“He has a new respect for everything I’ve done and done, and that’s how relationships should be.”

Karla is now on a mission: to encourage all women in Britain to strike if their partners aren’t doing their bit.

“It really works!” she says.

“If I hadn’t gone on strike, we wouldn’t have survived.

“Now I tell all my girlfriends to strike if their partners start moaning. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”

Mums on Strike airs Sundays at 9pm on Channel 5 and My5.

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