To think that something's wrong if u can't afford breakfast for your children

[Blossum123]

A friends neighbour constantly says she can't afford her childrens breakfast - the school have started a breakfast club and the children attend for free . Which is good.
Iv been on benifits but how can you not afford breakfast - it's surely the cheapest and easiest meal ? I know some children won't have breakfast but this isn't the case - she claims she can't afford it - makes u wonder what they get for tea

There is no concern in your op just fake incredulity that someone can not afford breakfast.

Yeah I'm sure social services have got a breakfast hotline.

You have no idea what this person is doing with their money, and neither does the OP.

When my DD1 was 3 yrs old she told a friend that we were 'so poor we had to eat salmon juice'.
I have no idea where that came from, but you can't necessarily rely on kids to provide accurate information!

5 banana for a family of 5 is 100 calories each. not an efficient spend of 75p on a very tight budget.

Admittedly, bread for toast is very cheap, but what if your grill is knackered and your toaster has packed up, too? If you're running on your last pennies, even a £5 toaster is a stretch.

Porridge is extremely cheap. It's not the easiest food to cook, though. You have no working microwave (plus a microwave is best for single portions of the stuff) and your only pans are cheapy ones and all the non-stick's come off. You have the cheapest radiant heat electric rings on your cooker, which cost a fortune and taken manage to heat up, and then they're too hot and won't cool down and your attempt at breakfast, which one of your 3 kids can eat has boiled over and is burnt. You're not confident enough in your cooking abilities (your parents never cooked anything and you were brought up on pop tarts and sausage rolls and chips) to work out how to get around this.

In comparison, even though the solutions seem so easy, judging is often much, much easier.

YABU she's taking re kids to school so they get a breakfast she can't afford. Maybe it's clothes and evening meal so that's what she normally gives hem as they get lunch at school. They are not exactly starved. Anything could be going on. She could have run up debts to bright house or something so is struggling for back few months, could be anything, could have had benefits sanctioned for missing and appointment. The kids don't sound neglected to me. My eldest do never eats breakfast no matter what I offer her with her 2 sister's. I don't eat breakfast either and we are still well, she eats all her other meals. Sometimes I manage to force a cereal bar on her going out the door.

Stupid phone

Suppose it depends if they are a free for all, social occasion which doubles as childcare for working parents, I'd feel strange sending mine in if I could possible afford to give them a proper breakfast at home with the family. Which is why my guess is that she must be genuinely strapped, the same as the poor people who get food packages. Can't be much fun can it

People use breakfast club for all sorts of reasons.

It's not like a modern workhouse with them all cowering around like Oliver Twist.

The school will probably know already, seeing as they feed the children at least twice a day.

Ffs.

"She is doing something about it. She's using the breakfast club so her children get breakfast. "

^^this.

People shouldn't be ashamed that they can not afford breakfast for their children. David Cameron should be fucking ashamed that he runs a country where people can not afford breakfast for their children whilst the Minister for Work and Pensions claimed £39 of tax payers money for one ducking breakfast. It won't just be the people on benefits either, it will be working people who are struggling to afford to feed their kids.

If the lady concerned is using breakfasts clubs in term times, maybe it means she can save a little bit of money so she can afford to feed her children throughout the school holidays.

If there realy was cause for concern surely the teachers would report to social services. Or even your friend would have rang them.

YANBU. There is something very, very wrong if a parent cannot afford to feed their children. Now, if only we could find a way to get the Tories to agree with that, then things might change for this woman.

Oh. It's one of those threads

Her goat eats too much. That's the problem. She should make him into a curry.

Mmmm... curry goat...

Well if she is getting breakfast for free, that's a rational thing to do, rather than paying for it, surely?

Gives her more money to spend on other things.

However it does sound like perhaps she doesn't ever prioritise buying food, which is less sensible. Unfortunately some people don't have their priorities right. Maybe they have never made a budget, maybe they just don't care. Not sure how you tackle that.

Before it was working in got offered a free place at breakfast club for 2 of my dds. I didn't use it as I don't drive and had to leave the house much earlier than normal and I could afford breakfast. Maybe everyone on free dinners is offered free breakfast club.

Yup feeding your children if you are unemployed and on benefits is a fucking nightmare.

I have only one ds, but a a 14 year old. Every penny I have goes on feeding him. I don't manage to pay the new council tax. I don't pay the water rates. We don't bathe every day. In winter we don't put the heating on.

And I only have one child

And I am a fucking chef by profession.

Go figure.

Why are you ringing the school op it's nothing to do with you. The school will have offered the kids a place due to her being eligible for free school lunch. I would be passed off is someone rang up about my kids going to breakfast Club when the school have offered it. Sounds like your just stirring to me.

To be honest, the OP is either very very stupid. Or a troll.

Report away.

I'm going for really really stupid AND a troll.

It's the only thing that makes sense.

It's a bit silly really.

Either the woman is a shit parent and doesn't care about feeding her kids, in which case it's good that the government is providing them with breakfast, because as the OP says, the woman won't bother.

Or she is a good parent but can't afford food, in which case it is good that the government is giving some.

Either way these are the sort of children targeted by these schemes, not sure what else there is to say really?

Indeed. what else is there to say?

Except the OP seems overkeen to assume the , er, neighbour must be a feckless twat for having admitted they struggle.

Judgey twat. Or trollly twat.