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?

I had the whole ‘poverty porn’ genre of television. I think it’s dusgusting that poor people are used and displayed for richer people to laugh at and judge. What possible good can come from a poor and destitute family seeing how the 1% live for a week before going back to their hovel and shit wages?

I had occasion to visit the house next door to one of the "poor" houses and the house next door - in a 70s terrace - was very nice indeed and the people there did grumble a bit about the "poor house" people didn't have any less money than they did and they were insulted when their road was portrayed as "Oh, dear, how awful to have to live here..."

comment about - in my area they could easily get a full time job if they had a skill - empathy & realistic understanding - not! Some people have family backgrounds where because of poverty/family instability/lack of support in education (not anyone's fault but just circumstances note) mean they have been unable to get qualification necessary for training/apprenticeship so retraining may not be an option & different area have different opportunities it would be arrogant to assume that if we were in their shoes we could do better. Confidence in yourself in often taught by circumstances & by being in contact with someone (whether teacher or parent) who helps you believe in yourself & therefore gives you the idea that you can work towards another opportunity - many people don't have these supports in childhood. Not everybody is physically/educationally practical or able to do skilled work either.

Some of the families on it aren't exactly poor, just in the bottom 10% of disposable income. If anything it's harming perceptions of what poverty actually is. I've seen people much worse off, homeless etc.

Who is laughing at the poor family?
Odd thing to say. I think it highlights the wealth divide that is growing in this country.

mumsastudent - you are right i do lack understanding and thats one of the things i value about MM is that it does show a different side of life. Some of these couples were in the situation because neither of them seemed prepared to take employment - even minimum wage employment and there seemed to be an assumption that the women dont need to work. Unless someone is disabled - i do struggle to find empathy, especially where children they brought into the world are involved

I haven't seen the programme, but if (as it appears from reading this thread), you get the rich family's disposable income to spend on your own family for a temporary period and then you get to keep what you bought, then I would absolutely jump at the chance to go on this even though I would hate to be on reality tv in general. If nothing else, I would buy all the necessary stuff I could reasonably stock up on in advance and then maybe have enough disposable income myself that year to be able to afford a holiday!

dreaming Often because of childcare costs and benefits, it is not worth the second parent working minimum wage jobs.

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.

@tellmedinosaur … I couldn't agree with you more. It's a disgusting state of affairs when full time working adults can't afford a basic standard of living on their wages alone, perhaps even more so when two working adults still can't afford to live adequately without state or charitable help (and I'd question state help's ability to raise people to a decent standard anyway). Of course, 'the poor' are frequently told to 'get a better job' as THE answer to their woes but what always strikes me is that someone still has to drive that bus regardless - and do all the myriad other low paid jobs which keep society ticking over. Fact is, there aren't enough 'better' jobs for everyone who wants one, and of course, for all sorts of reasons, not everyone is capable of doing what might be popularly considered a 'better' job anyway. Does that mean therefore that despite working full time, the contribution of those in 'lesser' jobs is so much less worthy that the people concerned 'deserve' to live from hand to mouth in shitty housing? I don't think it should, but sadly many people do and the inhumanity of it enrages me

abacucat - i get that....but surely one of the parents could work?

Bus driver isn’t even a low paid job anyway. Average salary is about £22,000 apparently.

Bonkers that they’re in (or considered to be in) poverty.

I watched it once, the poor family were richer than us which I wasn't expecting. I found it quite interesting to see how different families live although I wouldn't choose to take part myself.

If one of the parents are not working, there will be a reason. Trust me job centres really push you into taking any job these days and sanction you if you will not. I have managed volunteers who because of lack of personal resources, struggle to do basic volunteering, and need support. No employer would give them this.

I've seen it once. We all laughed as the poor family were much richer than us...

And agree that they are often not that poor, just working class.

few boxes to store things in could really change the whole feel of the flat/house

Storage is expensive. You end up buying really cheap plastic boxes which are thin brittle plastic and break so easily.

Although average bus driver salaries where I live are £19,300.

It's classicist porn. Terrible propaganda. Hate it!

I agree that some of the poor families maybe are not doing everything perfect in their lives. But few people are. The difference with rich families is you can hire someone to do stuff for you. But then I don't expect people to be perfect.
So my garden could look nicer. If I was rich I would have a gardener. Because I am poor I spend the time I could be gardening on MN instead.

And if I was on Rich House Poor House I would hope the rich family would hire a gardener to make my garden lovely for me.

Don't like any of these programmes........it's like the Victorian days when people would pay to view those less fortunate. Only the modern equivalent is poor people.

And why the hell are channel 5 so obsessed with these programmes ?? It's downright odd.

I can see the parents/children going to a rich house thinking they get a wad of cash and treating it as a holiday. But must be difficult for their children to understand and go back.

But the rich parents/children are mostly horribly patronising, the comments ingenuine and sometimes offensive. Let play at being poor for a week!

The whole program is distasteful.

Just watched an episode of this off the back of this thread series 1 ep 1. It seems like a really nice show and I can see why the poor family have done it. A week of getting to live in an amazing house, get meals/take aways etc. His son had to stop playing football because he’d grown out of his boots and I thought it was such a nice moment when the dad was able to buy him new football boots! And the dad wakes up at 4am every to bike to work. So he gets the week off that as well!

It’s nice to watch really. I grew up poor and I’d have enjoyed swapping lives for a week. Just like I enjoyed staying over at my middle class friends houses and seeing how different their lives were. The only difference is I probably wouldn’t display my families finances on tv as I wouldn’t like everyone knowing what we live on.

I'd never heard of this show. Googled it and have found my next month's worth of mindless car crash tv to watch - thanks!

Watched the first episode and as someone who's right in the middle of the wealth scale I found both lifestyles fascinating. I love people watching!

It's a pity it's now so staged. The rich mum was carefully wiping round the beer mats on the table in the club she was cleaning.