to think that going on Rich House Poor House is horrible

[Brizzledrizzle]

I can't understand why people would do it if they are the poorer half of the programme, it must be so hard for the children from the poorer families - I wonder why they do it?

My sons friend's family went on as the 'poor family. They loved it and treated it like a free holiday!

That's good that it worked well for them, I just think that for some children (particularly the ones going back to really unsuitable housing through no fault of their families) must really struggle.

but sometimes unsuitable housing is the fault of the families. there have been several where the mother doesnt work and the father has only temporary work....and where i live its easy to get FT reasonably paid work especially if you want to/ have a trade

It gives the poorer kids the opportunity to see how the other half live. To give them inspiration that they can do well and achieve a similar life.

To be fair a lot of the time some of those so called poorer families also realise that they have something the richer folks don't necessarily have. I wouldn't go on any of those programmes myself but I do see how people do it sometimes to get and give a different perspective on life. That's true for both sides.

I do not like it at all. I remember an early one where the children were quite upset because they absolutely loved all of the after school activities (horse riding etc). Yet they knew there was no chance of that happening back at home. It was so sad.

Because if you are poorer, you can finally buy the things that your family want/need with the budget of the richer family, like the family who bought a laptop so that the wife could do her course to help get a better job.

We had an application through the post for the poor side and we actually considered it, but then when we did the process they said our kids wasn't old enough and they wanted to be able to speak to them about what it's like having no money, we thought nah it's not worth the hassle.

It does seem hard on the kids of the poorer families but I guess it also shows them what’s possible out there, especially when the richer family is ‘self made’ in some way.
To be honest though as viewers it’s been really good for making my DH understand just how fortunate we are and how privileged his upbringing was. He was genuinely shocked that we were much nearer the rich houses in terms of income and lifestyle than the poor ones - I think it’s made him appreciate things a bit more.

I think its really interesting, and fairly sensitively done.....

A free holiday for the poor kids. I would have liked this when I was a very poor kid and my parents would have used it as an opportunity to buy us some new trendy clothes instead of the usual hand me downs we wore - hard on a teenage girl.

And no, it wasn't my parents fault. They had actually improved their and our lives by getting out of the slum housing we had been in as as young kids and giving us a much better childhood than they had had. What some don't realise is that parents who are poor may have actually have moved up from where they started from.

poor people should just try harder!!

wow

I’m in the lower income bracket , I think it’s good to show that it isn’t so easy financially for everyone. I do worry about the impact on the poorer children though. On here there is a lot of “get a cleaner” “anything less than fifty pound for wedding card money is cheap” hopefully it will show to some of the audience that people can’t always just make cuts elsewhere in the budget .

I always feel for the children tbh, imagine going to school as the “poor” family. Children shouldn’t be involved in shows like that imo

Also it’s like saying to a child look what we could have ha ha but now we go back to worrying the gas meter might run out before I’ve warmed your pasta or worrying about how I will pay the bills.

It’s poverty porn and I hate it

The families I’ve seen so far are all lovely though I’m glad that there was no snobbery or reverse snobbery involved.

One think I realised was that while the poor side in some episodes talked about lack of space and being cramped in a flat, you could very clearly see why. There was so much stuff everywhere. It's not always like that, the last one was lovel, and yes, the accommodation is often small, but it did make me think that the main difference between some of the poor kid/rich kid bedrooms was often the amount of stuff they had in there and that few boxes to store things in could really change the whole feel of the flat/house for the better.

If you are poor, by the time you are at secondary school you know you are poor though.

I saw an early episode where the poor family had a father working as a full time bus driver and a disabled mothership worked part time. The thrust of the narrative seemed to be that the children should aspire to more in life and ‘better themselves’ in comparison to their parents. I just thought that it was a fucking travesty that someone working full time as a bus driver couldn’t earn enough to look after his family, even with additional income from a partner working part time, and that this occupation was positioned as less valuable/worthy than that of the business-owning rich-family. I thought the whole thing was pretty disgusting - though a reflection on how our society is structured nonetheless.

Obviously there will be a divide when it's rich house vs poor house. But it's not as if everyone else is rich if you are poor.

A more realistic programme (but not very interesting) would be mediocre house/poor house. I'm sure if a "poor" family came to stay at ours they wouldn't be overly impressed, let alone envious!

I would more question why the rich families want to appear. They don’t need the financial incentive and always feel really bad about the living conditions they witness.

matilda - i think its either to show their kids how other people live and therefore try and make them appreciate what they have more. Or with some families they have issues with work-life balance they want to address.

main difference between some of the poor kid/rich kid bedrooms was often the amount of stuff they had in there and that few boxes to store things in could really change the whole feel of the flat/house for the better.

Surely they'd be better off getting rid of the stuff if they can manage without it? Who wants to live surrounded by boxes! This isn't about that though, it's more on how it is for the children to go on the programme and I think it must be soul destroying for some to go back to the poorer lifestyle again.

@brizzledrizzle you are absolutely right about the soul destroying part!