am I the only one who detests all the 'perfect family' adverts?

[purplelass]

I mostly record stuff now so that I can spin through them but sometimes I'll watch things 'live' and have to catch the ad breaks. It was bad enough over Christmas when all the ads were showing huge happy families with so many presents and so much food, then when I think it's all over it's summer holiday ads showing the same thing but in swimwear.

I know it's me that has a chip on my shoulder as I'm a working single mum on a low salary. Both my parents have passed away, my siblings live a long way from me, my teenage daughter (understandably) wants to be with her friends / in her room and I only see my fella 2-3 times a week. The loneliness is unrelenting some days and having all these images of what my life 'should' be makes it unbearable...

I'm not a miserable person, I'm normally a cup half full kind of girl but when I'm on my own in the evenings knowing my friends are all playing happy families, it really hurts seeing the life I'll never have on TV all the time :(

Totally relate to this. We struggled conceiving with unexplained infertility and for years we had to watch adverts with 'perfect' families cooing over their babies. Or baby adverts or anything with a baby in it basically... It's just like a slap in the face to what we wanted but couldn't have...

In reality, I don't think anyone has the perfect family. Everyone has their own sh*t going on so it is a bit odd that they don't have a more diverse range of families on adverts.

It's bizarre isn't it? They have to ensure they get the right diversity with sex and race bit I can't see why they can't reflect society, I'm sure they'd sell more if they were more inclusive...

Is it not the same as showing beautiful young people with expensive cars? We all feel sad when we see something we might like but cannot have it. Those happy family ads grate with me too, although I have the (usually) happy family the pure syrup of those ads gets up my nose.

Yep - I get more irritated with the Christmas ones tbh. JL used to make me want to hurl something at the TV - bad enough being hammered home ‘if you’re not aperfect 2+2 family your Christmas will be shit’ but the year of the ‘even a bloody penguin can find a partner and you can’t ‘ made me think ‘well sod you then!’
There’s so rarely single/lone parent families portrayed as if it’s still the 1950’s and we’re a shameful secret.

I used to hate those baby ads too. DS2 was skeletal and grumpy from birth until reception class, with a host of diagnosed and undiagnosed problems, and all those fat smiley babies made me feel like the worst mum in the world.
No one's life is an advert. Your mates probably aren't at home playing happy families, but rowing with their DPs, DC and jealous of your free time.

But can you make a couple of nights family nights? Tell your teens you want to see them once or twice a week for a fun night in together- make pizzas, watch a film or pamper, or have a girly night with one of their friends each and one of yours?

We do pizza and film night once aweek. Otherwise I'd never see them!

And is there anything you could do in the evenings - either a class outside home, an online course or similar, so you feel like you're achieving something with your time? There are loads of free courses online if money is tight.

Totally totally relate to this, have been going through a difficult time since December and I felt like there were days adverts made me cry. Sounds so silly but it's true.

Funny, you don't notice them when everything is going great, but when you feel like shite is like you can't escape them x

@sirlee66 I know it's not the same, but I suffered a miscarriage at Xmas many years ago. I absolutely hated seeing all the baby/ happy kid Christmas adverts. They made me feel worse xx

My family is now very small and the Adverts had me panicking because I didn't seem to be doing/buying enough.

My children were always ill over Christmas and then, as Teens, they ruined every occasion with their fighting.

The best Christmases that have been the best have been low key built on low expectations.

My biogical family has always been far from perfect and it's always pizsed be off people assuming that if I just try hard enough we can be a happy family.

I don’t usually watch ads either, but i thought the BT one one over christmas with a little boy growing up with his gran (never made clear, but gave the impression she was his main carer) was very nicely done - not too shmaltzy, and nice to see one of the many different sorts of family.

Yep. Detest them too. They won’t convince me to buy anything!

Yes I hate them too. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person in the world who doesn't have a huge,extended,close-knit family.

I feel the same way, happy family adverts make me feel even more lonely.

@gingerclementine that's a good idea to combat the loneliness, thanks - I'll see what exercise / evening classes I can find to get me away from the TV :)