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?

Next week they’re doing “Rich house, poor house changed my life”. Might be interesting?

Also, I think for most people watching it is the wealth porn that is interesting! Golf lessons for children?!

Aahh...I see, boopsy. :-) You don't but I'm guessing lots of people do!

Also, on yesterday’s program the rich kids were the ones who felt they were missing out- they lived miles form anyone normally so loved the idea of playing out

One of my friends got a large inheritance and moved from a poor area to a well off area. I remember about 10 years later her and her DP were moaning about the state of some gardens in a poor area she was driving through. I agreed and said to her - yes its awful how some people just leave a carpet in their garden for 3 years. She blushed because she had done exactly that in her old house, and had for a moment forgot the reality of working long hours and stretching out her low wage.

It’s the MN way, nobody should be rich, but we should all be equally poor.

Wink No thats what I mean. I'm sure a 'poorer' child enjoyed the horse riding or piano and I thought how generous if the richer family paid for this to continue.

Dont We'll have to agree to disagree!

Red

I enjoy watching it but also think it helps both those on the programme and those watching (certainly me) to understand "the other side" better.

In every one I've watched so far, the rich family have realised things like the importance of spending more time together or enjoying simple pleasures - eg there was a little girl who enjoyed her birthday outing to a city farm type place so much more than the sort of things they normally did. And poor families have enjoyed a "holiday" and also in some cases it's given them some pointers about eg debt management or how to work their way up in their job.

I think they have chosen families quite carefully, often self-made rich families (eg the man who had been left in UK as a teenager when Russia invaded his home country, was fostered and worked hard to make his money) and hard-working poorer families. Much better than the extremes of Benefits Britain or Life is Toff which do seem designed to either annoy watchers or have people laughing at the families.

Rich Kid Goes Skint was a similar thing with rich young adults going to stay with poorer families and that had some different outcomes - some obnoxious young adults who couldn't cope out in the real world, but also some who made real friendships with the families.

If I were the poor family I think I would fall into depression going back to my shithole house after living in a mansion. Maybe they are not all shitholes before you go mad, but the 2 episodes I watched both poor families homes were grossly unkept/untidy.

wink - not moving the sofa doesn't reflect badly on the family that lived there. All their children looked under 7 or 8. All the visiting family's children were teenagers or older. The sofa was chopped up by the dad and two teen/young adult boys and carried to the tip by 6 adult sized individuals. Plus the visiting family were actively choosing to do something concrete to help the other family. When it's your own chores it's easy to just leave it and leave it.

The point the PP was trying to make was that the visiting family showed some effort/pride, when the resident family had just left the sofa there.... it reflects badly on them, sorry.

I don't watch this programme. But just living in a poor person's house for a week or whatever doesn't actually parachute you into their lives. They might be working two jobs, long hours on minimum wage, be really tired all the time, be depressed, hungry and cold most of the time. In my job I do qualitative research and I've spoken to people who are very poor and some who are destitute. They have to use all their energy just to survive. They feel hopeless. They don't have the energy to care about stuff like their garden looking presentable.

OK, Re the sofa.

it had been there for months. The owner had plenty of opportunity to make a trip, or several trips, to dump it. Instead it was left on the front lawn looking an eyesore.

The rich family were living as the poorer family so in no way had unfair assistance. Both were equal.

channel 5 rubbish and nobody is really poor in this country. Go abroad and you will see poverty. Some people dont even have a home.

How were they in any way equal, Neshoma

The 'poor' dad got up at 4am 5 days a week to start work at 5am. The 'rich' dad did the commute once to see what it would be like and was back by the middle of the day to try out budget supermarket shopping.

The 'poor' dad or mum would have had to chop up and lug the sofa to the tip themselves - making 5 or 6 trips - while the other adult looked after 6 small children. The 'rich' dad had the help of 4 of his teen/adult children plus his wife to get it all there in one go with nobody needing looking after at home.

Psychologically, there is no comparison either. The 'rich' family knew they were going back to their very comfortable lives in just a few days and had the mental and physical energy and motivation to do something nice for the other family. They weren't worn down by years of 'same old same old' poverty just gone with no change to look forward to in the forseeable future. Instead, they were fresh, well rested, coming from a background of having the time, means and energy to deal with jobs and problems as soon as they come up and probably knew it wasn't long till their next luxury holiday.

If you're put into a house with your family and given £110 for the week it's no problem, is it. You do a week's budget shopping and don't go out much or do any activities or shopping that week. Easy. But if that's your life every week and there's never a meal out, a trip to the theatre, a holiday or a shopping trip to look forward to then it's a very different thing.

As I said upthread, one family they featured were living in a terrace where the other houses are actually all very well maintained and occupied by ordinary working people. It wasn't Belgravia, but going, "Oh dear, what a dump, poor kids," was ridiculous.

The fact is we're not All Rich or All Poor. There are many shades of grey and it's unreasonable to hand wring on behalf of the poor house people and seeing what they haven't got, when most of us are just jogging along in run-of-the-mill houses without fancy cars/horses/swimming pools etc etc.

'and nobody is really poor in this country. Go abroad and you will see poverty. Some people dont even have a home.'

Some people don't have a home here, brainiac.

But done of this stops you going to the tip. Excuses, excuses.

@manicinsomniac You put it better than I did.

@Neshoma You seem to lack both empathy and basic reasoning skills.

Witch I have watched probably ever y episode and I don't recall any of the poor houses being 'shitho les*. They were usually perfectly nice HA properties, sometimes too small for the family but they were never untidy or messy. The only one that looked like it needed work was the swimming instructor hippy single mother with the camper van. I read that she prioritised travelling over her home.

Quite a few of the poor families were in an overcrowded property because they had had more children since getting it. If anyone saw the Towerblock Children (also channel 5) it was the same. One family had had 2 further dc since getting it, meaning that 4 dc were sharing a small bedroom. was

All of the rich families said that in order for them to be rich that they had to miss out on their dc growing up and equally all of the poor families said that money buys you things, but not happiness. So I think that no one is devastated bout back to their houses.

Robot Nothing wrong with my skills, but you need to understand people have different opinions to you.

And Im sure you wouldn't like to live next to someone who dumped the sofa in their front garden?

dont all talk at once. The people on the programme all have a home.

We have safety nets in this country some people abroad have nothing.

We have safety nets in this country

Dear God

I really like it...has the potential to be car crash / horrible but the families that are selected on both 'sides' are generally lovely people and have similar values of family first. Some of the families have become friends (saw a follow up episode). There's no sense of the makers playing on crass stereotypes e.g lazy poor folk or greedy rich. The kids often have the biggest realisations about it all...the saddest ones are the ' I'd love to have this space/safe area' but overall it seems positive. I watch it with my son and it's opened his eyes up to both ends of the spectrum from crazy weekly budget to running out of electricity....

We have safety nets in this country some people abroad have nothing.

Yes, well, we don't live abroad. I'm from a poor country myself, it's not a race to the bottom or a comparative scale and actually, we have a rapidly deteriorating 'safety net' in this country and for some people (particularly for some with certain disabilities) none at all.

Of course the participants in this type of crap programming are going to be housed, it's called 'Rich House, Poor House', FFS, they'd not be able to do the show with a tent.