The Yorkshire shepherdess and the snowflake generation

[Marcia1989]

www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-9438725/Our-Yorkshire-Farm-star-Amanda-Owen-gave-birth-eighth-child-husband-ASLEEP-upstairs.html

Sorry for link to the Daily Mail. It was the only non-paywalled article but her comments are also reported in The Times and The Telegraph.

She runs a sheep farm in a remote part of Yorkshire and has 9 kids. She thinks that parents do not raise their children to be sufficiently independent, to look after themselves. She didn't really do home-schooling with them because she doesn't want to be a helicopter parent - she expects them to just get on with it. She expects all the kids to help on the farm and they don't really do devices/TV etc. Having watched her TV series, I agree that her kids seem admirably self-sufficient and mature and I do think generally it's really good for children to have some responsibility. But, I do also wonder whether a lack of individual attention is detrimental to them. And there will be some kids who don't get on with it, and is it really right to just leave them to it?

What does everyone think?

Don't know about now but back then she was doing a lot more media than shepherding.

Farming is seasonal work. Of COURSE there are going to be days when she can do more non-farming than shepherding. How utterly bizarre for you to hold that against her.
Do you honestly think she has to be only doing sheep work 365 days a year in order for you to not think she is being fake?

Brace yourself - I know some farmers who take holidays sometimes. Actually leave the farm holidays. And yet! They claim to like their farming life, the filthy hypocrites

@Lantanacamara

bend that is my issue exactly. I don't dislike them but I do take issue with having such a large family only to pan them off on the eldest child so that you can live your best life, and to me that seems exactly what Amanda is doing. Someone upthread said Amanda has a very good social life and that doesn't surprise me at all. In her books she was pleading poverty and "we love the simple life, not interested in being in the limelight" but then I unfollowed her when there didn't seem to be a day when she wasn't on TV, radio, podcast or some other promotional media outlet. Don't know about now but back then she was doing a lot more media than shepherding.

It's a bit hard to claim they're palming the kids off on the eldest when she's been living away at university (COVID permitting) in York.

I've done quite a bit of media myself, speaking up on behalf of two campaigns, appearing on everything from local radio to BBC Breakfast. The media very rarely pays for such stories - at best, she will be hoping to sell more copies of her book. There's not a huge amount of money in publishing either nowadays, from what I understand. Most media appearances can be done quite quickly too - a radio appearance will take no more than 10-15 mins from your day, for instance, and the same can be said for a breakfast TV segment unless you have to travel to a studio for it. A book tour, by comparison, would be much more time consuming.

Unless she's negotiated a stonking appearance fee for the C5 series (seems unlikely) I can well believe that she's not actually getting hugely wealthy off the back of her media career - and there's certainly not much money in hill sheep farming.

Avocados I said I stopped following them several years ago so I'm not referring to now. If you've read the early books you'll see that Amanda put Raven in charge of the children from a very early age. In the intro every child is named with something said about their personality, but Raven is "the one who looks after the children". I think sadly that sums her up.

No I wouldn't be surprised (I'd be delighted for the kids actually) if Amanda took time off and they went on holiday. I don't hold that against her either , my point was within the context of the narrative she portrays of herself in the books, she is a very different person in real life. Again, I don't care, but I think it has all been a clever marketing ploy and unlike the poverty she claims in the books they seem to be doing financially quite well.

@Lantanacamara

bend that is my issue exactly. I don't dislike them but I do take issue with having such a large family only to pan them off on the eldest child so that you can live your best life, and to me that seems exactly what Amanda is doing. Someone upthread said Amanda has a very good social life and that doesn't surprise me at all. In her books she was pleading poverty and "we love the simple life, not interested in being in the limelight" but then I unfollowed her when there didn't seem to be a day when she wasn't on TV, radio, podcast or some other promotional media outlet. Don't know about now but back then she was doing a lot more media than shepherding.

It's quite easy to find out! According to Company House her accounts for 2019 show just under £40K. That's obviously what we can see and that's her income not the farm's. It's not clear if that covers her B&B lettings.

I've done media work myself. Local radio slots don't pay unless your agent /your haggle for a fee and you are lucky to get £30.

Appearances on daytime TV can get you around £100 plus travelling expenses.

Royalties on books and associated income can bring in a reasonable amount if they sell. I think she also produced a calendar and she writes a column for a local paper.

So I wouldn't call her poor, and of course she may have other strings to her bow.

Avacados why would you assume that C5 aren't paying them well? The Radfords got an all expenses paid month trip to Australia out of C5, that is some serious money! The Owens are well liked, so I imagine any TV production company are willing to pay ££££

Milly I certainly wouldn't cal her poor, but she called themselves poor! Did you read her books?
That is my issue with them (like the Radfords), they are claiming things that simply are not true, whilst telling the nation how they should be doing things.

Also This Morning have paid families £1k just to appear on the show, not including travel expenses and hotels, so the media is probably a bit more lucrative than you think.

I'm always suspicious of people who get loads of attention because of how many kids they've had, it worries me.

'In her books she was pleading poverty and "we love the simple life, not interested in being in the limelight" but then I unfollowed her when there didn't seem to be a day when she wasn't on TV, radio, podcast or some other promotional media outlet. Don't know about now but back then she was doing a lot more media than shepherding.'

Yes her hunger for fame does not match the wholesome basic lifestyle she's flogging does it.

As I've said good luck to them, she's playing the media game and making money who can begrudge her that but it's when they seem to be believing their own brilliant parenting narrative that it all gets a bit silly really.

She shouldn't proclaim anything about current generations 'work ethic' because according to their cut off life and no time for screens wtf do they know anyway.

@Lantanacamara

Also This Morning have paid families £1k just to appear on the show, not including travel expenses and hotels, so the media is probably a bit more lucrative than you think.

Media appearances to plug a book, show, etc aren’t lucrative- I say this as someone with a long career in PR.

You might get a car to pick you up, or a contribution towards travel, but they aren’t going to get an appearance fee to just talk about themselves

Appearance fees are for when there is a story to be told on an exclusive basis, and even then they are fairly rare because most people will do it for free.

So the chances of her TV, radio (podcast? Don’t know if she does them) paying anything more than pocket money is vanishingly unlikely

It sounds like you really dislike this women for one reason or other and are scraping the barrel to find any excuse to be mean about her and her lifestyle!

Spare I don't dislike women at all . I used to like them, bought her books (so supported her) but then got to stage that they were appearing absolutely everywhere and Amanda's claims did not match her behaviour/lifestyle. I realized it was all just a clever marketing ploy to soften the nation into thinking they were a salt of the earth, hardworking, broke family. Hardworking, yes without a doubt. Broke? Not by my book. And I hasten to add that I don't resent that at all, but just like the Radfords, be honest about it.

@Sparechange with a long career in PR I suspect you'd be advising your client to make sure she's walking her walk as well as talking her talk. A substantial, sophisticated run of media appearances to flog her book and promote her documentary is incongruent with the 'we're just simple farmers living a simple life' schtick. But I suspect that wouldn't have bothered anyone here if she hadn't also put her name to an article criticising other people's parenting.

I said this waaaay up thread but there is something uniquely annoying about someone who is on the telly and uses social media very well indeed to drive her business complaining about other people watching telly and allowing their DCs to use screens. She's in this, fully part of it, making her children part of it - to then criticise it is hypocritical.

I haven’t really watched or read anything about this however she will need to say controversial things such as ‘snowflake generation’ and continue to say even more to keep her in the public eye. Otherwise people will bore of them and the revenue will cease.

I will say with all these farmers pleading poverty - my kids ended up at private schools at random times. The families with multiple children in the system at the same time were all farmers. Absolutely loads of them. Some had fees of 20k a term or more and they didn’t even seem to blink.

The Yorkshire Shepherdess cannot win! If she sticks to farming alone, her DC apparently don't receive a broad enough appreciation of the world and limited educational horizons. And if she takes advantage of media interest in her while it lasts (note: the media were interested in her, she didn't seek it out) in order to save up a university fund, and includes the DC in the process, she gets it in the neck again for exploitation.

Some had fees of 20k a term or more and they didn’t even seem to blink.

Seeing as Eton 'only' charges £14k per term, that sounds implausible.

A substantial, sophisticated run of media appearances to flog her book and promote her documentary is incongruent with the 'we're just simple farmers living a simple life' schtick.

Sorry, I don’t see any sort of contradiction at all, unless you honestly think to ‘walk the walk’ she isn’t allowed the leave the farm gates or have access to pen and paper.

The appearances will be organised by the publicity team at her publisher and c5
She isn’t hitting the phones all day to drum up media gigs - they will be part of the contract when she signed up with the publisher.

I suppose it’s the not-uncommon MN hairy shirt mentality rearing it’s head, because god knows some posters love a bit of competitive poverty/race to the bottom
And Amanda Owen’s ability to be simultaneously humble, simple but widely interesting is rankling with some

'And Amanda Owen’s ability to be simultaneously humble, simple but widely interesting is rankling with some'

She can be 'humble' and fame hungry as much as she likes.

It's the twaddle about the 'youth of today have no work ethic' that is objectionable. Just because theirs are all farm hands doesn't mean every other child is mollycoddled.

Just because theirs are all farm hands doesn't mean every other child is mollycoddled.

And you think that’s what she has said? every other child is mollycoddled apart from hers?

There are some seriously hard of thinking replies on this thread

@Sparechange

Just because theirs are all farm hands doesn't mean every other child is mollycoddled.

And you think that’s what she has said? every other child is mollycoddled apart from hers?

There are some seriously hard of thinking replies on this thread

Her exact words are " 'The snowflake generation, they can't do anything,' Owen told the Radio Times.

'They don't know anything about how to look after themselves, or a work ethic, all of that has gone out of the window. It's our fault as parents." And then she went on to talk about how she raises her children to be independent and doesn't swaddle them so it's fairly clear she's talking about the whole generation, except hers. You don't have to be hard of thinking to read someone's own words.

@Sparechange

A substantial, sophisticated run of media appearances to flog her book and promote her documentary is incongruent with the 'we're just simple farmers living a simple life' schtick.

Sorry, I don’t see any sort of contradiction at all, unless you honestly think to ‘walk the walk’ she isn’t allowed the leave the farm gates or have access to pen and paper.

The appearances will be organised by the publicity team at her publisher and c5
She isn’t hitting the phones all day to drum up media gigs - they will be part of the contract when she signed up with the publisher.

I suppose it’s the not-uncommon MN hairy shirt mentality rearing it’s head, because god knows some posters love a bit of competitive poverty/race to the bottom
And Amanda Owen’s ability to be simultaneously humble, simple but widely interesting is rankling with some

"Interesting" is subjective. I do not think she is interesting.

"Interesting" is subjective. I do not think she is interesting.

But you realise that millions of people tune in every week to watch her because they do, right?

'And you think that’s what she has said? every other child is mollycoddled apart from hers?'

Youngsters. She refers to youngsters (so yes, other dc) and the snowflake generation 'They don't know anything about how to look after themselves, or a work ethic, all of that has gone out of the window. '

So please don't sneer at me for being 'hard of thinking' and perhaps actually read her sanctimonious sermon (linked in the op).

@Sparechange

"Interesting" is subjective. I do not think she is interesting.

But you realise that millions of people tune in every week to watch her because they do, right?

Yes, I know. But millions also watch the Kardashians and think they are interesting. As I said, subjective.

There is a lot of speculation here about her income.

What's visible on Companies House may not be everything she does. But she is listed as the Yorkshire Shepherdess Ltd.
There may be other companies for the B&B and they could be listed under her H's name.

Media work is not that well paid. I have friends who appear on TV (not as celebs but as experts) and the fees are poor. I'm also an author (and have friends who are authors) and can confirm that unless you have a really good publishing team behind you, the publicity has to be initiated by you. It's down to authors to set up their own book signings, talks, appearances in local papers.

She possibly got decent advances for her books but not 6-figures- many advances are a couple of grand these days and the rest is royalties.

I don't blame her for cashing in on it while she can.

What I take issue with is her inference that a lot of children are 'snowflakes' with 'helicopter parents'. Some are, yes, but some are neglected and far from that. And most are somewhere in the middle.

I suspect that having married young and lived on the farm since then, her own exposure to other parents and their kids is limited, especially as her family is very self-contained and she doesn't even go to parents' evenings.

Being outdoorsy and working the land may be ONE way to develop character, but it's not the only one. But she implies it is.

@JaniieJones

'And you think that’s what she has said? every other child is mollycoddled apart from hers?'

Youngsters. She refers to youngsters (so yes, other dc) and the snowflake generation 'They don't know anything about how to look after themselves, or a work ethic, all of that has gone out of the window. '

So please don't sneer at me for being 'hard of thinking' and perhaps actually read her sanctimonious sermon (linked in the op).

I agree. I had someone yesterday accusing me of 'lying' when I joined the dots and came to the same conclusion as you have .