To think that many families are leading a sort of "half life" in the UK at the moment?

[AwfulMaureen]

Or is it just me? We're really not well off ...DH is a painter and decorator and I work for myself part time and earn about 200 a week. We have recently moved into a Housing Association home and it's very cheap but we still struggle.

The girl who lives opposite us is a single parent and she is REALLY struggling with a newish baby and a part time job...she can't pay her council tax.

I know a teacher, again a single parent and she is constantly living in fear of losing her home as the mortgage is such a struggle....she never buys anything new at all and has barely enough to pay for school trips.

The only people I know who are ok are those with two parents in professional careers who both work full time.

Those in unskilled work aren't really managing and those who ARE skilled but have no partner aren't managing. It's really shit.

My parents were very poor, I was also raised in a council flat like others here. Life is much better and easier for me than it was for them, but that is mostly because of DH, who has a good salary and came from a well-off background. Most of my friends who I grew up with (all working class) have only improved their standard of living if they married into a family who was better off than theirs.

I grew up on a council estate with two parents who worked full time and I had a marvelous life.

Maybe try doing things their way? Work full time and make more money?

Jux, I agree.

The argument that we have so much compared to third world counties is utter bollocks.

We have clean running water and an education system of sorts so we should not bother to fight the gross inequalities that exist in our country?

Ridiculous point of view that only serves to preserve the status quo.

Agree with wobblyweebles. Surely if you are an a HA house its pretty cheap. I am soon to retrade but at moment both work full time on low wages and we have mortgage, holidays abroad, decent car etc. If you work full time it will be much better for you financially if you like the lifestyle.

jasminemai and wobblyweebles - in an ideal world that would work. But what about childcare costs? These often make going back to work FT a luxury and many women find that they are working merely to pay child care so aren't better off at all.

The media (ok the DM) seems to be intent on telling us that we've all got unrealistic expectations in the life - when actually, all most people really want is to have a half way decent place to live, enough money to feed their family and pay the bills and have the odd treat now and again, and not to live in fear of losing everything. How is that unrealistic?