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Original poster

To think Myleene Klass will win no friends with this...

500 replies

CarlaVeloso · 05/02/2015 11:46

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11391753/Myleene-Klass-Ill-be-collecting-unicorn-money-for-my-daughters-birthday.html

She has tweeted two emails from mothers at her daughter's school asking for cash donations for their children's birthday parties. She's changed their names but clearly they are still recognisable to anyone with children in that class and presumably the whole school will know about it nowthat it's been published in the papers and online.

I agree the emails are completely crass and I would privately think the same but they haven't committed any crime or sent her an expletive-filled rant about something. I opened it expecting to see a request for an actual kindle when they are just suggesting £10. Crass, vulgar, materialistic etc etc, yes, but I think her response (shaming them publicly) is really nasty and may not win her or her DD any friends at the school gate.

OP posts:
Suzannewithaplan · 12/02/2015 12:18

poor disadvantaged Mylene...

forago · 12/02/2015 13:09

My son has that. How is it linked to ASD? There is a suspected link to anxiety disorders, unproven. What research shows a link to ASD?

DreamingOfAHotDrink · 12/02/2015 13:16

I didn't attend the last EDSUK conference, Jessica Eccles from Brighton, spoke about it there.

MojaveWanderer123 · 12/02/2015 13:24

Can't see the problem personally. I would rather someone ask for money than waste £10 on some crap the child doesn't like or already has.

mummytippy · 14/02/2015 09:48

I know this is an old post now but I just wanted to add my thoughts.

Taking aside whether it was a planned PR stunt by MK, I agree with what she did and I think she did it in a humorous way to make it look as ridiculous as it was rude.

My son attended a very nice Prep school and non of the parents would have ever made such a rude request to other parents about present suggestions.

I was brought up to grateful for what I was given and I think it's important too for parents to find time to take their child to go and buy a gift for their friends birthday party (tacky or not) it should be their choice. My son always has a fair idea of what his friends like too so it's lovely to watch the child's face as they open their gift.

If we all started to dictate £10 in invites or other amounts of money, where would be be?

Last year my DS was bought a gift called 'Target Heads' by one friend (the fabric helmet has Velcro on it and you throw fabric balls and catch them on your head!) and a 'Spy Pen' (pen with a torch and invisible revel able ink) and he's never had so much fun with them.
The important thing is his friends chose them and they'll always have that attached to them. A happy memory as opposed to my son receiving multiple £10s and going crazy in a large toy shop, that is for us parents to do if we so wish.

I also believe the head should have remained silent as she is meant to be neutral.

Well that's now off my chest!

teawamutu · 14/02/2015 10:01

But it's the way that class arranges things, and it wasn't the parents posting.

I agree random gifts can be great, but everyone (all HALF MILLION of mk's Twitter followers, and then the rest of the world) has been encouraged to slag off the people who didn't send the mail! This isn't a grabby parents story, it's a spiteful and calculated pr stunt.

GoodbyeToAllOfThat · 14/02/2015 16:17

My son attended a very nice Prep school and non of the parents would have ever made such a rude request to other parents about present suggestions.

You do understand that it was not the parents of the intended recipient circulating the request?

GoodbyeToAllOfThat · 14/02/2015 16:17

I agree random gifts can be great, but everyone (all HALF MILLION of mk's Twitter followers, and then the rest of the world) has been encouraged to slag off the people who didn't send the mail! This isn't a grabby parents story, it's a spiteful and calculated pr stunt.
Yes.

mummytippy · 14/02/2015 16:43

I understood it was a group email concerning two birthday children.

SuperFlyHigh · 14/02/2015 17:26

Agree with goodbyetoallthat no
need to name and shame other parents on social media which is why the headmistress of the school quite rightly called Myleene out on this.

SuperFlyHigh · 14/02/2015 17:28

Myleene is also only doing this as everyone knows because she wants the free publicity and her dresses aren't selling well at littlewoods etc

teawamutu · 14/02/2015 18:18

A group email sent by people who weren't the girls' parents.

A year ago.

Resurrected and used in a pathetic attempt to flog a few more pairs of nylon fecking knickers. Contemptible.

mummytippy · 14/02/2015 20:08

I don't think it was to name and shame the other parents as I heard their names were blanked out.

I believe it was a reaction to sheer materialism of it all.

teawamutu · 14/02/2015 20:23

Bless you. And bollocks, I'm afraid.

Have a Google about Myleene's fake waving a knife at burglars story; the giving birth under a fake name story; the stealing the Pope's loo roll story.

All proven lies or heavily embroidered. Timed for when she had something to promote.

Why else would she wait a year and release the emails within a week of her new lingerie campaign?

teawamutu · 14/02/2015 20:26

And if that's not crass materialism, I don't know what is!

whothehellknows · 14/02/2015 20:38

mummytippy I know it's a long thread to read, but having read it I understand that

-such collections are common practice at the school
-the (year old) email was sent not by the birthday girls' parents, but by other mums from the class, as is the norm for the school.

-Neither the parents' names, nor the students' names were blanked out.

GoodbyeToAllOfThat · 14/02/2015 21:00

mummytippy. Have you received an email aiming to organize a "communal" present e.g. Lego Minecraft or similar (say, a Kindle) from someone other than the parent of the birthday boy/girl? I have probably received something in the neighborhood of 30 such emails over the past 3 or 4 years.

This is now customary in this pocket of Central London.

BetterTogether75 · 14/02/2015 21:14

She is a big, shiny-haired TWAT! Angry

mummytippy · 14/02/2015 21:23

Teawamutu I'm sorry, I haven't heard or read any other stories about Mylene 'faking' things whether it be the Pope's loo roll or otherwise. This is genuinely the first thing I've heard heard about her.

Whothehellknows I didn't know the parents details were public as what I saw, they weren't.

Goodbyetoallofthat No, I've genuinely never had such an email. I've only ever had traditional hand written invitations in my son's bag or text invites.

forago · 14/02/2015 23:30

its customary in the whole of Surrey and possibly beyond as far as I know. total fucking non story designed to boost her profile.

SallySolomon · 15/02/2015 00:39

Last year my DS was bought a gift called 'Target Heads' by one friend (the fabric helmet has Velcro on it and you throw fabric balls and catch them on your head!) and a 'Spy Pen' (pen with a torch and invisible revel able ink) and he's never had so much fun with them.The important thing is his friends chose them and they'll always have that attached to them. A happy memory as opposed to my son receiving multiple £10s and going crazy in a large toy shop, that is for us parents to do if we so wish

Couldn't have said it better myself. Completely agree, Birthday presents from your friends should be things they've chosen, or that they think you'd like. Not generic money thrown in to a pot to buy you something 'big'. Where's the fun in that? You've got nothing to open.
Your post has given me fond memories I'd completely forgotten about - a good friend from primary school (so I'll have been about 8) made me a little handmade gift just because she wanted to. It took pride of place on my desk in my bedroom and I was dead chuffed that she'd made me it. Meant so much.
THOSE are the type of memories you want. Not forgoing presents in lieu of one great big one from everyone.
Money or the gift isn't important. It's the thought that counts.
Big presents like kindles and desks should come from the parents if at all. Not an expectation that people attending their friends birthday party should all chip in for it.

SallySolomon · 15/02/2015 00:40

such collections are common practice at the school

No. They're really not. Or maybe I live in a less grabby area.

GoodbyeToAllOfThat · 15/02/2015 14:17

Goodbyetoallofthat No, I've genuinely never had such an email. I've only ever had traditional hand written invitations in my son's bag or text invites.

Your response makes me think you've possibly missed the point. There's an invitation, sent by the parents of the child. A handwritten note in a school bag or an email, yes.

Sometimes, a parent (not the parent of the birthday boy or girl) will send a follow up email suggesting that they all chip in and get something like a Lego Minecraft thing or similar.

I think some people might be romanticizing the reality of a child bringing home 20 presents on his or her birthday. In my experience there's a lot of National Geographic/Horrible Histories/Lego repeats, and some gifts obviously selected by parents with an eye towards their maintaining their image, and quite a lot of stuff from the pocket money section that breaks very quickly. You can just as easily make a case against this as for it.

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