omg at britains most shameless mum

[PainAuChocolat23]

Now im in no way bashing benefits. I am a mum to my wee boy and am currently on benefits and its bloody hard going but i manage as best i can.
But watching this programme im watching with shock, it really isnt nice viewing. There are people using food banks and their 6yr old got a petrol quad for his birthday the impression that i got from this is that they seem to be proud of the life they have on benefits and seemed gloaty. Now i know i may get flamed for my views but people on benefits get a hard enough time without cases like this tarring us all with the same brush

Child tax credits & working tax credits. But it seems like the dad pisses off all the time anyway and their "don't give a shit" attitude is awful.

I think the desire to constantly produce babies is a mental health problem. It would also account for the dog breeding issue. I think there should be counselling/treatment provided after child five. It is definitely anti social behaviour, like hoarding but with babies.

What I wonder about it how the people who are permanently on benefits can avoid this. As for "not much fun", well, it depends on what you make of it.
I am now permanently on benefits. So, yesterday, I went to bed at 9.45. I got up at 12.30. to turn dh. I got up at 2.00 to help dd to the loo. I got up at 4.00 to turn dh. I was up for the day at 5.30. Sorted the dogs out. I have showered dh and got him dressed and brought him downstairs. I have done the same for dd. Later I will take dd to college (a 30 mile round trip). When she is at college I will supervise her twin doing homework etc. I will do washing which needs to be done daily due to two people in the house with continence difficulties. I will aid dh in his bid to move around the house. I will cook, clean, walk dogs, pick dd up from college, help her eat, help with organising her study timetable for the evening, sort dh out for bed, sort dd out for bed, at some point I will also walk the dogs again, and I will start again tomorrow. Live the Life of Riley on benefits, I do!

Confused Of course it's totally different, but if you were at the post office judging those picking up benefits, how would you differentiate me from the workshy benefit scroungers so many folk seem to think all those on benefits are? I've had people have a go at me in the queue when I collect my carer's allowance, I've had the 'you look fine to me, lazy cow'. I even reported a post office worker once for asking me, at the counter why I thought I was entitled to the allowance, just another con, in her words. Any idea how that feels. How these threads feel? It's all well and good when people say 'we don't mean you', but actually, you do mean me, and thousands like me, because you can't differentiate. We are the people that suffer when others continually judge the minority.

Agree that this type of show is edited to show the worst aspects and is not representative of the majority of claimants.

However I'm failing to see what they could have possibly NOT shown that would have shown the pair as responsible parents. Benefit claiming, number of kids aside, they were lying about the kids health, his reason for not attending work, possibly making money without declaring it, guilty of criminal damage (and seemingly remorseless). The house was a tip, she was exceptionally entitled. And if, as she said multiple times, she didn't care what anyone thought, why garner such publicity? The car and holiday may well have been paid for by the television channel but there's no denying her gleeful admission that they spend about £400 on each kids birthday. £4400 a year??!! Best she put that money to better use for when/if what they receive is cut/reduced.

Confused, the point is that these threads don't differentiate well. I won't judge the family, although I saw about three minutes of the programme, because I'm not there. However, I always have a suspicion (particularly after the furore surrounding benefits street) that the crew are not perhaps as honest as they could be with the families in these programmes. Put it this way, you'll never see a well educated, articulate family on a programme such as this, would you. Yes, those other families do harm those like mine, but they really are few and far between and they only harm us because people are unable to differentiate until it's pointed out and the government use terminology that is blanket coverage and chooses to use the minority to represent a majority.

Actually, Britain's most shameless mum has plenty of money. She has 3 or 4 kids, all under 5, and she's for ever off on childfree holidays and breaks, doing charitable events and getting lots of praise for her thoughtfulness. She does work a bit, but her husband earns plenty so she doesn't make a profit. She likes to take time off to go to the gym, or a pamper day. Oh, she lives a fine old life!

And the kids?

With an 18 year old East European au pair - much cheaper than a nanny - who does all the childcare, the housework and the cooking. Language course? Well, she gets to talk English at the playgroups, doesn't she?!

Somehow, I don't think any programmes will be made about the likes of her any time soon...

Tanith, I thought you must be talking about Sam Cam or the Duchess of Cambridge just now...

I dont think the figures add up to what she says she spends.

400 x 12 for birthdays a year

500 x 12 for xmas a year

Plus formula, nappies, food etc.

She also says she likes new clothes for the kids.

Plus they run a car so thats petrol, tax, insurance etc x 2 because they have two cars.

Their shopping bill must be £400 a week and thats not including formula.

So imo they have exaggerated how much they spend on things because the figures just dont add up

Tanith, you may be right but then that would be Britain 's most shameless parents wouldn't it? The dad knows who is children are being looked after doesn't he? He could insist they pay a nanny, or treat the au pair appropriately. Men always get off scot free in these sorts of programmes and threads, even on here sometimes.

And as for that programme last night, the bit I disliked the most was the parents lying to the school and his work in front of the children. Teaching them honesty and hard work is optional and not something they need aspire to. Very sad as what sort of future does it set out for them?

The wallpaper thing- I'm a paramedic, I have been in a lot of council houses.
Lots of them are exactly like that. Dirty, wallpaper off, carpet partially up or sticky under your feet.
Some of them are worse, filthy, mess everywhere, dog shit and old nappies and fleas and a massive new cliche TV.
Some of them are tidy and clean, by no means is this the majority (of the houses we attend anyway, this may well be relevant)

I know it's not fashionable to say it, but there are lots and lots of people living like this. The cost to society is increased when you then consider the fact that there are big knock on costs, both direct and indirect, in all our public services and the way they are run.

Having said that, I don't know what the answer is, how do you have a safety net without some people using it as a hammock?

i live in a council house front room is half decorated with one stripped wall we have been doing the house bit by bit.

I judged the constant swearing around the children, lying to the school in front of the children, lying to the employer about why the husband was going to be late for work, smoking in front of the children in the house/car and smoking while pregnant. I would judge anybody for setting a poor example to their children in this way. I feel sorry for the children growing up to see this behaviour as normal.

I feel sorry for any children that feature in these programmes, without being asked I'm sure. Bet they are given hell at school. :(

I watched the quad bike scene through my fingers with the toddler running around in front of it. The six year old had hardly any control of it. Surely at some point the cameraman should have stepped in to stop that as the parents clearly weren't going to.

If a house is damp, wallpaper will come off the walls. It will continue to do so until you sort the damp out. We had a leak from our roof and only found out when we woke up one morning to find a piece of wallpaper in the sitting room hanging down onto the floor. We tried sticking it back on once the problem was solved as the rest of the room is fine but it just wont stay. We are going to have to redecorate but haven't got round to it yet.

I expect this may explain the reason why some houses don't have all the wallpaper they should have, especially where there is a landlord who needs to deal with damp problems.

Wasn't this programming done last year with a different woman?

I caught an episode of it in my friends but can't recall her name, throughout the show she made remarks about how idiotic the general public were to buy into the hype because she was deliberately playing on it to make cash and it was working and now someone else is clearly playing the same tactics.

I notice that there's never a mention of Britain's most shameless fathers who sleep with these women, get them pregnant and then move on to the next without a second thought. If these women are really that bad then the fathers should be stepping up to care for their children.

MN used to be full of intelligent comments. I despair at some of the comments here.

Not seen it but can imagine it given the descriptions here.

Sadly it's not just her but millions doing the same re not working, having children and claiming as its seen as easier than working. For every person physically capable of working but claiming instead, the less money for those who can't work due to being disabled or having terminal illnesses etc.

It's the children that have to try and escape the legacy or remaim destined to copy there main role models.

Which comments Cleat?

How do you have a safety net without some people using it as a hammock? - Love this phrase.

Not watched the program but assume its so that we feel more righteous in cutting benefits and tax credits?

With regard to people's life styles when living on benefits - we all choose how we live our lives, how we bring our children up. These people are making their own choices and pretty sure that their view would be that they are doing the best that they can for their children. We may disagree and would insist that they should be doing it another way, but at the end of the day, we can't "make" them live life according to our standards.

There are plenty of people on benefits who are perfectly brilliant parents and that have very tidy homes - as PPs have said, these programs are always to show the worst and to create yet more hatred for these "skuzzy benefit scroungers"