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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

feral teenage mum rioter- does she deserve her council flat and her child?

302 replies

porcamiseria · 10/08/2011 22:21

www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23977196-shame-of-the-mother-who-saw-her-bad-daughter-looting-in-tottenham.do

I get that there are underlying issues, and that castigating the "scum" underclass is not going to acheive anything but this story for me, epitimises things

how can anyone defend her right to be a mother, and her right to benefits and a council flat? now she will go to prison, her poor child will either go to his grandmother or into care, and the cycle continues

something needs to be done to disincentivise girls like this from having children. I am not advocating sterilisation, or having kids wrought off their mothers in labour ward BUT we have a society where girls like this have babies, and they are the kids that end up rioting

people say that education and support is the answer, but in some cases people should NOT have any more kids and I think we are being far too liberal, she's a bad un. end of.

OP posts:
squeakytoy · 10/08/2011 23:13

Ok, I may be wrong on that.. but this is what the Telegraph has to say

"The unemployed mother-of-one, who was recently evicted from her council flat, made no attempt to hide her identity as she joined others rifling through stock at a branch of JD Sports close to where the riots began at the weekend."

"She was one of a group who made off with thousands of pounds worth of items last Sunday morning as residents in Tottenham attempted to clean up from the previous night?s destruction"

sunshinelifeisgood · 10/08/2011 23:13

oops looked at thread and have now seriously fucked of from thread... good luck to all that gets involved. Me personally am not getting involved :)

youjusthaventearnedityetbaby · 10/08/2011 23:13

Oh!! I wanted a go with tethersend's brick! Has everyone fucked off?? Why am I reading this or even posting?

twinklypearls · 10/08/2011 23:14

Mumsnet has made me realise that I was utterly shit at claiming benefits and being a single mum. I could not get a council flat. I could not afford the internet , I only had one child, I had no flatscreen TV and I gave it up to get a job.

I should have tried much harder.

Original poster
porcamiseria · 10/08/2011 23:14

exactly boobs

OP posts:
catgirl1976 · 10/08/2011 23:14

I don't feel sorry for them. Anyone looting should be subject to criminal proceedings. I just don't think we need to invent new punishements for them like removing children / housing. I think the exisitng justice sytem ok to deal with things without people demanding ill thought out knee jerk craziness

Original poster
porcamiseria · 10/08/2011 23:15

shes mother of the year squeky

but even dare suggest it and I am a FACIST!

God MN makes me laugh sometimes!!!!

OP posts:
MrsRhettButler · 10/08/2011 23:16

So stealing not rioting, there are a lot of thieves op, why not concentrate on the violent ones that set fire to peoples homes?

Anyway, I thought I left already....

RitaMorgan · 10/08/2011 23:17

She's not a rioter or a arsonist though is she? She's a petty thief at worst.

Original poster
porcamiseria · 10/08/2011 23:18

fuck I did not mean she should have her child and flat taken away!

I just dont think she deserved them in the first place!

OP posts:
RitaMorgan · 10/08/2011 23:19

How are you going to decide who deserves to have children then?

catgirl1976 · 10/08/2011 23:19

maybe not. but coucil housing is distributed on need not merit.

catgirl1976 · 10/08/2011 23:21
ShellyBoobs · 10/08/2011 23:21

She's not a rioter or a arsonist though is she? She's a petty thief at worst.

A veritable pillar of the community! Hmm

tethersend · 10/08/2011 23:21

So, let me get this straight, porcamiseria...

Are you saying you don't want a go on the brick?

No?

Anyone?

Well in that case, I'm off.

GypsyMoth · 10/08/2011 23:21

who deserves a council tenency then? it isnt the house she is'given' (she still has to pay the rent on it)its the tenency.

who should get the tenency then?

creighton · 10/08/2011 23:23

If she is evicted from her flat, she may be deemed to have intentionally made herself homeless and so would not qualify for immediate rehousing. She may have to try private renting. If she moves in with her mother, no adaptations will be made, they will all have to bunk in together.

Original poster
porcamiseria · 10/08/2011 23:30

i get my OP title was inflammatory and I take my pasting

but i do find it funny that i get more vitriol that an antisocial , much evicted, hated by her own mother teenage (ok not a teen now) mum who left her kid at home to join her hoody mates to nick shit in the riot

MNs funny I tell you

sirens still going outside tonight, the poor hounded hoodies

OP posts:
SiamoFottuti · 10/08/2011 23:40

another one who thinks that if you aren't screaming for their blood you want to hug them and defend them. Not big on nuance you lot are you?

bemybebe · 11/08/2011 00:09
KilledBill · 11/08/2011 00:09

"decentivise bad girls from having babies".....

And who defines being bad? Is it being poor? Young? Or nicking a pair of trainers? Which of these means she should remain childless for life to you?

The vast majority of the rioters are men. I dont think I have, at any point, seen anyone either on MN or elsewhere say "I wonder how many of them have children? They dont deserve children, we should decentivise these bad boys from having babies".

I wonder what that says about our society today then?

Maybe that, STILL, we view women as first and foremost mothers, carriers of babies, and maybe even only that.

So is it any wonder that these girls themselves then see themselves as only that? Thats where your teenage pregnancy comes from.

PerfedTic · 11/08/2011 00:18

In response to the OP. Of course she doesn't deserve her fully paid for lifestyle.

I lived on South London estates in the 1980's, where everybody was on benefits, and housed in council accommodation.

There was no crime, other than the occasional break in, which was a common occurrence during that time, no matter where you lived.

Teenagers would never have done what they have been doing over the last five nights. Why? Because they were too scared to do so.

And before anyone posts about disaffected youth, not having any facilities to go to, or activities - what the hell was there in the 80's for youngsters? The youth club. That's about it.

And most of those young people didn't grow up in the way that their age group now are doing - full of a sense of entitlement, with their rights above all other.

Why do they do it? Because their parents are scroungers and layabouts who think the world owes them a living. I know I have just hit DM bingo with this post but I don't care.

Disgusting.

SiamoFottuti · 11/08/2011 00:19

There was no crime in South London in the 80's? Hmm Everyones a comedian, hey?

PerryCombover · 11/08/2011 00:23

This sort of post is absolutely vile. I strongly feel that we need to think about what is going wrong and try to address the issues in our local communities.

We need to show empathy for girls evicted and hated by their own mothers as there is a story there and it isn't pretty I'm sure.

The last thing we need to do is become reactionary harridans.
If it were our kids looting and rioting we'd need support and understanding and help to put them into a better place in society
We'd need help teaching them action and consequence as clearly that might have gone wrong at some point.

We wouldn't need them to be hounded out of their housing, unfairly labelled or judged unfit mothers. It seems that the duty to behave well is always much higher for a woman isn't it?

We are a website of mothers, act as such.
Just sayin

Blueberties · 11/08/2011 00:25

It's amazing that this is being blamed on a Tory government a year old.

It takes more than twelve months to create an underclass swimming in this depth of amorality.

I doubt they are protesting at the closure of their local library. How many knots do you have to tie yourselves in to believe it's down to David Cameron.