To be sick of politicians/media talking about "families" ...

[Primadonnagirl]

...and meaning Mum Dad and two young kids.? Don't they realise there's a whole range of families these days and making sweeping statements really pisses me off.e.g. Someone said on the news this morning that " cheaper child are will really help working families" ....well, yes if you've got young kids who need looking after, but won't make any difference to all the other types of families around all of whom suffer from the same financial pressures of a rise in cost of living etc..Doesn't caring for an elderly relative make you a "family" Grrr, And it's only going to get worse in the run up to an election...Sorry rant over..off to work now!! (cos I'm part of a working family!)

What would you like them to say instead?
"Parents and carers of young children under the age of five, both of whom work and who require childcare"?

That doesn't leave much time for them to talk about their policies, even if they manage to get it all the right way round

I think you're being a bit daft about this. Policies which help parents find cheap childcare are 'family friendly'. Doesn't mean they will help all families but expresses positive intentions towards supporting some families. There has ALWAYS been a range of families. No policy can universally meet needs. It's a phrase and a pretty accurate one. Get over it.

You are 'sick' of it? Can't please everyone yabu

I think you're making a good point actually. It's not solely politicians however. Anything that refers to a 'family' ... admission to attractions, railcards, buckets of fried chicken, holidays ... immediately assumes a stereotypical 2 adults, two kids. My family is one adult, one child and get a bit fed up with missing out all the time just because I'm not the 'right sort of family'.

I'm back..northernlurker I think you miss my point..it's fine that these statements apply to somebody ..my point is the help/ support/ advantages these bring doesn't necessarily apply to every " working family" and therefore is excluding a lot of people that don't fit into the demographic..and yes I'm sick of it because if you read the press,watch TV there is a lot of rhetoric.from all parties..about working families at the moment.What I'm trying to say is ideological stereotyping is one thing but when it affects policy making that's another thing entirely

YANBU. I am heartily sick of it.
As a single person with no kids you feel TOTALLY bottom of the pecking order. I know children need most support and those on a low income, but singletons do tend to get ignored!

but it is a policy aimed at that (not insignificant) demographic. They may have policies geared to helping retired people in which case they would say " this will help pensioners because of x,y and z" yabu as it is necessary to explain which demographic each policy is aimed at - just as you don't fit that demographic there is no need to take offence.

I totally get it and it irritates the hell out of me too. I'm divorced (so automatically blacklisted by the Tories lol), have no kids but care for two elderly parents who live with me. I work full time. Earn just enough to pay the bills and the mortgage (food is sometimes a luxury) and get completely ignored by all political parties. I feel invisible.

I mean working families has such a broad demographic...fine..but when it comes down to the detail it's always about families ( as opposed to one parent)with children...my close friend is a single parent with a dependant older child...she's still a working family but doesn't gain from the publicly lauded policies..I do appreciate you can't cover everybody's circumstances but surely in these days there should be a recognition that one size doesn't fit all.And for those that say well it's the majority...how do we know that it's the majority???
I suppose Im am just touchy because every day I work to support my family but it doesn't fit in the picture book image of what my family should be apparently

YANBA, I spent many years single with no children, no relatives nearby and feeling like I didn't matter when it came to all the 'hard working families' talk. I worked so hard and found it difficult to afford any sort of decent living standard.

My sister is childless (through choice) and sometimes I can see her point when she says here she is working full time since she left school 15 years ago paying her taxes yet all the Government are talking about is helping families. As a single, working person she pays in the most yet gets F all and is invisible to the Government. I can see why she get cynical about the whole thing when all she does is work to fund everyone else.

but a single parent family is still a family - the discussion of helping families are aimed at single parent families too - then there are additional policies aimed at helping simple parent families that exclude families with 2 resident parents.

...but none for the single person without children

What term would work though? I can understand how you feel, but in the absence of an easier and more descriptive one-word term what do you propose they call them?

YANBU.

"Hardworking families" is a cliched phrase designed to get a certain type of person nodding and cheering, but it actually isn't very inclusive.

As well as all kinds of families that include parent(s) and child(ren), there are many people who are single, widowed, childless (by choice or not) etc.

Why not just "people"?

And why is it always "hard working", as if people who can't work or are SAHMs or are retired or unemployed aren't worth anything?

Ha just wait until the Tory wankers government introduce the married couple allowance later this year.

The hard working family rhetoric of this government is quite a deliberate and open attempt to define family exclusively as a married couple + children. They have a long and dismal record of being very anti John Redwood's "feckless single mothers" or unmarried parents (who incidentally are now 11.7% of all couples)