I'm a single mum of 7. AMA!

[WorldCupSadness]

Scared 😅

This. It’s clearly rage bait.

You’ve certainly generated a lot of interest.

What extra-curricular activities/hobbies do your children do.

How do you manage airports.

If you were in a DA situation have those children affected, been able to access support.

So?

This is how I feel, OP’s clearly smart enough to game the system to her advantage, but posters should be angry at the system, not the individual.

It doesn’t make me angry, just a bit sad. She’s clearly gone through some serious trauma to keep picking such losers to procreate with and is clearly trying to fill some kind of void with babies. Hopefully she’s ageing out of being able to. And also sad for the kids who would have no hope of enough attention, support or love when there’s so many of them, and who will probably grow up to replicate their mum’s mistakes.

Even with the cleaner it must be like bailing out the Titanic with an egg cup

All in, OPs family will have cost/claimed £1.5+ million in taxpayer handouts over the course of them all growing up with one thing and another. All the kids will be entitled to full support at Uni too vs parents who earn more on paper but due to tax take home much much less.

How many working parents would love the luxury of never having to work FT and/or to self actualise and study a subject of interest.

Here’s the rub too, a single carer with no kids but caring for sick or elderly relatives gets practically no help or support in contrast.

OP you say you’re ‘very lucky’. You aren’t, you’ve gamed the system intentionally or unintentionally and hit the jackpot 🎰 income wise with many people much worse off now paying you for your irresponsible actions. How is that anything other than unconscionable?

You can’t put them back, but only you could have chosen to use contraception and be reasonably responsible.

No because while we worked, we were busy paying tax for that generation of pensioners. That's how it works.

And with earnings and maintenance she gets 6k a month. That’s possibly not even including any child benefit.

So try a salary of around £110,000.

@Floatlikeafeather2no, because the cohort of pensioners you were paying for was much smaller, demographics have changed. Why do so many people struggle with this concept!!!

Why is it relevant that your neighbour is Polish? Reform much?

Would you feel the same about footing the bill for her kids if she wasn’t white British? What difference does it make that the population increases through immigration if the tax payer ends up footing the bill anyway?

I wouldn’t have 7 dc for 6k a month in benefits, that would be too tight an existence for me.

And I prefer to not have to rent a home.

Wowzer. You receive more in benefits than I earn

Twice as much as I do.

Your primary source of income is benefits and that is driven by the number of children you have. What age will you be when those benefits stop and what is the plan?

are you worried that policy changes could reduce the benefits available? You are in quite a precarious position. A change in government could significantly reduce your income

She has a part time job, 5 kids are out of the house at school all day and 4 of the kids are 10 or older so should be capable of tidying up after themselves and helping around the house a bit.

How many different dads in total?

And how are your pelvic floor muscles?

Also, and this is possibly the most sensible question I have, are you anti-contraception?

Yep. People can't help themselves. But they probably wouldn't manage a day in my shoes!

To be fair they wouldn't choose to put themselves in your shoes.

We have 3 kids
and 2 full time working parents
monthly income approx £4300 including child benefit - not eligible for anything else!

it’s a constant juggle so reading about people just having 7 kids sponging off the tax payers annoys me!!

however the system needs changing people shouldn’t be allowed to receive more in benefits than the average persons earns.

It’s not nearly as difficult as this poster is making out timing wise. I self studied for mine whilst doing my QWE as a full time trainee solicitor. Passed all my exams first time in the first quintile. Obviously I didn’t have 7 kids but I definitely don’t think the SQE requires ‘full time’ study. I didn’t do an LLB either.

My question is, what kind of bloke do you think you're attracting if you've already got several kids by several different men? Surely you would be attracting quite unusual men and that would put you off?

Agreed - very few people would have seven children - never mind seven children by four different dads.

I am sure most people could cope - people cope becuase they have to. Few people would enjoy OP’s lifestyle, but I would argue most people could manage it if that was their life and that’s where their choices took them.

And £1.1k in CM payments. That’s £88k.

You can see why middle earners have had enough. Not a pop at you OP - you claim what you can because that’s the system.

I am hard judging some of the judgy posts on here and their assumptions. OP is a domestic abuse survivor. She went straight into a relationship at 19 and we know women end up in a pattern of coercive relationships (maybe that is why she gets anxious as a result of those experiences?). At least some of the kids are a result of those relationships not just carelessness and entitlement.
She sounds to have turned things around, escaped, is bright and is now using her intelligence to get a degree and earn more in future. Whilst working 21 hours a week - that is a solid work ethic. She could just be a SAHM on those benefits but chooses to work. It's not like she can send the kids back.
So, bright kids (eldest off to uni), being raised to see you can turn things round with a good work ethic and as functional members of society is exactly what we need in a low birth rate society.
Bit confused by the 3 month old though - but I'm pro-choice so would never pressure a woman to abort an unplanned baby.
This isn't the kind of generational benefit cycle family PPs are imagining - they don't work or get degrees whilst raising 7 kids! So chances are OPs kids will pay back into the system well.
I don't grudge her a penny. Well done OP on getting to where you are and best of luck.

OP how often do you get the impression that other mums envy you? Or that the judgment you get is motivated by envy?

I'd have loved more kids (have three) if my health had allowed it and my husband had been on board. My mother had five full and five half-siblings, and while there was a lot wrong with her family, the many children weren't the problem. May you all do well.

No, because if our birth rate drops, we are told we need more immigration, regardless of the health and skill level. It's much better for a country to have a stable birth rate, than ship hundreds of thousands of adults within a fifteen year age range.
The OP's family costs the same as, one year, per person, in prison. We put people in prison who we could deport. That's before stupid spending, tax breaks and overseas contributions (not aid). Part of the reason we don't have communities etc is because we've stopped valuing families. The OP is bringing up seven children, the eldest is off to university, the OP is in further education, so she is teaching her children, education matters. She's cost less than one child going through foster care, or what Preston Davey's family has caused/cost. Were does putting a price tag on start? Why are we attacking the people needing a bit of help, but doing a good enough job?
@Tings my children were partly raised on benefits. I've been praised, the last time was in the dental hospital with my youngest when she was 26. So I wouldn't put money on your theory. FYI all my children are in work.