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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to wonder why Katie Hopkins had three children?

215 replies

ShuffleBallChange · 05/05/2011 19:34

She went back to work three weeks after having her babies and thinks all women should. I was still bleeding heavily and surviving on about three hours sleep a night then!!!!!!

OP posts:
cumbria81 · 06/05/2011 08:23

Quite frankly, I couldn't give a shit what KH did after giving birth. Their her kids and her choice.

Personally, I think 10 days is too early but each to their own

At the end of the day, a baby isn't going to remember whether its mother was there or not.

Ishani · 06/05/2011 09:16

she was totally dismissive and rude about breastfeeding and the goodness it offers too. Silly woman she is!

I am not sure i'd want somebody incapable of interpreting research and anaylising data within my business anyway, with or without her "views".
I suspect she's trying to be on the boys side which is daft because they all do what the girls tell them anyway.

AccioPinotGrigio · 06/05/2011 09:29

Is the same woman who withdrew from the Apprentice because the role wouldn't fit around her childcare arrangements? How did that fit in with her ruthless 'work comes first' attitude.

wordfactory · 06/05/2011 09:42

Look, what she did might not suit you OP, and it sure as hell wouldn't have suited me...

But we can't go from there to saying therefre she must not have children.
Who are you or I to say?

Who sets the deadline to what women must do? We haven't fought for men to stop telling us how we should behave just to replace that by other women telling us.

Each woman should make her own mind up.

QueenLaQueefer · 06/05/2011 09:44

She's a twunt.

goeasypudding · 06/05/2011 09:45

I saw the one show last night and was left feeling bad about myself as a SOHM by the end of the report.

However when the studio did their comedy reaction shots of shock and horror I cheered up no end as it was essentially only a funny over the top report from some once famous no one from the Apprentice.

Then the real surprise for me was how they turned to Richard E Grant and asked him what he thought. (They always do this dont they? The famous person looks daft by saying something trite after a serious report but not this time!)

His reaction was perfect. He said something about how he has one child the presenter has 2, and in 20 years would they be more happy about spending the most time at the office or with the children. He then said a child is a gift and is precious.."
He looked very serious and moved at this point.
I then remembered Richard E Grants autobiography "With Nails" (read it its v good!) where he recounts his sad loss of their first child.
I burst in to tears watching the One show, thats a first.

As women we all have to do what is best for us and our children and this in turn is effected by our personal and current circumstances.
This apprentice lady is saying business should not pay for our maternity leave as business is about profit.
Well hey! Business is profitable because of the people who work hard for them. Until business can be run only by robots then business should allow their people to have lives outside of work. The least a business can do for you is hold your job for you while you have a baby.
The work force of this country women and men are the real power behind the profit!

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 06/05/2011 09:50

Women tend to do this though, don't they? Put other women down? Katie Hopkins is like a 'pantomime villain' (very well contained by NinkyNonker) and she probably says a lot for effect in order to get airtime but, she has three children herself and possibly feels pushed and pulled like most other women who work and try to juggle.

I can't say I like her, but I think what she says is no worse than what some MN posters say here on a daily basis... and to question why somebody had/has a child would really be jumped on here if someone were to question a MNetter... so sounds a bit like double-standards to me.

GetOrfMoiCase · 06/05/2011 09:52

I am not listening to anyone who wears such ghastly make up. She should look in the mirror before leaving the house. Katie, the 90s went thataway

Nobody should take her seriously, her career is keeping up this shtick as a hard nosed business woman. I actually feel rather sorry for her, what a rotten career. She must sit in the bath of an evening and cry and cry Grin

WRT going back at 3 weeks, well if that suits some people what?s the problem? She had good childcare in place I presume. The baby won?t have a clue who is cuddling it.

GetOrfMoiCase · 06/05/2011 09:54

Agree lying.

Handwringing 'why did this woman have children plaintive pleading in an OP would normally ensure she gets shot down in flames.

NulliusInVerba · 06/05/2011 09:54

Lunabelly I agree with everything you say.

What she is doing, and what she is saying, is selfish on so many levels.

She wants us all to feel bad, so dont. She hopes that she can justify her behaviour, and she cant.

NulliusInVerba · 06/05/2011 09:58

The baby wont know who is cuddling it? A baby wont remember if its mother is there?

Really, do we actually think that? Our bond with our children starts in the womb, they know our voices and they know our smell.

If you were to leave your baby for a week or two, no it most probably wouldnt remember. But Katie went back to work and stayed there.

I recommend Katie does some reading around attachment theory and John Bowlby.

gawdblimey · 06/05/2011 09:59

i dont get why anyone would allow someone else to bring up their kids, let alone tiny babies, why bother in the first place?

but they do so hey ho

wordfactory · 06/05/2011 10:03

The last time I looked most men go back to work.

bemybebe · 06/05/2011 10:05

KH has failed in everything she tried to do. Now she is making herself a complete idiot on tv...

"Quite frankly, I couldn't give a shit what KH did after giving birth. Their her kids and her choice."

Exactly.

bemybebe · 06/05/2011 10:14

Btw about babies and remembering. When I was 14 my mum and I talked about various things memory-related and I jokingly told her that I remembered my first steps as a baby mainly because I was made a lot of fuss over by a guy I did not otherwise remember from my life. My mum looked at me in absolute amazement and told me that she and dad (both students of the same uni) decided to have a night out and that afternoon I was babysat by a college friend of theirs. When they came back this friend was excitingly telling them that I could walk and they did not believe him. I was about 9mo. Obviously I do not know how 'pure' these memories are but... FWIW.

GetOrfMoiCase · 06/05/2011 10:23

'Katie went back to work and stayed there'

As far as I know Katie is not a cosmonaut and went to a space station permanently and didn't see her children for years.

She presumably came home at the end of a working day and saw her children. Just because she is not there 24/7 doesn't mean she is not a good mother to her children.

I imagine there are loads of peop[le on this thread who have loving relationships with their fathers, and those fathers more often than not followed the same working pattern as Katie's.

I personally wouldn't go back at 3 weeks (3 months is optimum imo), however if Katie's mother was the carer, I don't see any problem in leaving a baby with a close family member.

MaryThornbar · 06/05/2011 10:26

The only reason they wheel her out is that she is a woman saying things that many misogynist male employers want to say - they would never put a man on the TV saying that stuff though. That's the only reason she is getting the air time.

If maternity leave was reduced or abolished, we would go back to the days when women gave up their jobs and didn't return to work. The current maternity leave gives people a choice between going back after two weeks, or taking a year off - but the end result is that the majority of women, valuable employees, do return to the workplace after having a baby.

I have a fear that she keeps popping up though as some sort of covert Tory propaganda, and that we maternity leave will be cut in the future.

wordfactory · 06/05/2011 10:35

getorf I too don't know why I'm defending her but it makes my teeth itch whne women start judgung other women for working anbd saying they shouldn't be allowed to parent.

It's such a short step from saying women shouldn't go back to work at all.

Longtalljosie · 06/05/2011 10:35

Noodles, good for you (sincerely!). In your position, I think I'd have wanted to do that for practical reasons but don't know if I could have pulled it off. But the difference between you and Katie Hopkins is you're not claiming to be a better person than everyone else because you did (at least I don't think you are).

She annoyed me on the Jeremy Vine show a little while ago claiming that breast/bottle was a question of the "delivery system" and there was no difference in the actual product. It also annoyed me no-one picked her up on it. I hope my observation doesn't piss off FF-ers but it did really annoy me because it's so obviously nonsense, whatever the relative merits / circumstances clearly it's not the same "product".

wordfactory · 06/05/2011 10:37

By all means be annoyed with her...but that is not the same as saying she is a bad parent.

bemybebe · 06/05/2011 10:56

Yeah, great parent and a girl with fantastic sense of humour... Hmm

ohnono · 06/05/2011 11:01

The woman is an arse who producers put on telly so she can wind people up. If we (me included) could ignore the gobshit then maybe she would get on the telly or in the papers so much.

ThisIsANiceCage · 06/05/2011 11:18

MN's inside goss on Katie's attitude to her children.

NinkyNonker · 06/05/2011 11:19

I see no need to attack the woman, we just disagree. I think what is sad is that she says that women are discriminated against for taking mat leave, so they should stop taking it. Surely the more logical idea would be to work on stopping the discrimination?

She was very quick to jump in when she felt her decisions were being questioned or criticised...geese and ganders spring to mind.

The day she puts forward a rational, inoffensive, well argued case will be the day hell freezes over she will be dangerous. But then, she wouldn't be on tv anyway.

Bot sure how any of it does her credibility any good though.

ThisIsANiceCage · 06/05/2011 11:23

And at her describing the (polite but firm) playgroup mothers as giving her a hard time and having forthright views.

Like to dish it out but can't take it, eh Katiekins?