To have cried!

[7dayslater]

I'm 19. DS is 18 months.

I live with DP & DS. I work hard, I have 2 jobs. DP works too. So, no we don't just sit on our arses, but we still need UC help to pay the bills. I want(ed) to train and work in the NHS. I'm also interested in politics.

So yeah, when I woke up this morning and saw the election result I cried. Austerity is very real, it's not a joke or a fictional story. With the way it is right now, I cannot afford an education. I cannot afford to study for a career. I'm stuck where I am.

Sadder still, others have it far worse. There are children in poverty, a homelessness crisis, the NHS is crumbling when people need it more than ever. I can respect democracy. I can respect the vote. But I have to ask, for people like me - what now?

addictedtochoc

You don’t think it’s possible for us to have a functioning NHS and a functioning lifelong education system?

Failure of imagination, that.

Wowza the nasty bastards are out in force today aren’t they. . .
The results come in and the gloves come off 🙈😢

I cant pretend that I agree with everything Labour "promised" or that everything would suddenly get better with them in power. My life wont change that much (hopefully, because we never truly know) but I cant say I dont feel sad for the most vulnerable who will continue to suffer.

OP - hugs and hope you’re ok

Also I cried in the school playground this morning (once the children had gone in) quite embarrassed but I wasn’t the only one at my kids school gutted by this. Saving grace is I think I live in a lovely little community

So sad that this is seen as all right that a young woman has to choose between being a mother or getting an education. We are back to the dark ages. Anyone who has ever encountered the logistical nightmare of having to 'make ends meet' will know that moving a course center even 45 mins away entails all sorts of complications. Why is this government not funding medical training for nurses etc when they are so desperately short (not a glamour or lucrative career option) ? I'm weeping too OP and I am not in your tricky position.

@Thestinkycheeseman
But if people took the same attitude to your parents/parent & told them you made your choices deal! They wouldn’t have had a state funded home or state funded benefits. You would’ve been out on the street.
This hardened attitude that you’re worked hard on your own is bollocks. You had a helping hand a bloody big one. Why feel so venhemently that others don’t deserve the same?

They wouldn’t have had a state funded home or state funded benefits. You would’ve been out on the street.

It’s fascinating to see how people justify the help that allowed them to get to where they have got to, but want to pull up the drawbridge against others.

Come the impending recession, a lot of smug people are going to be out of work! Good luck paying your mortgages. The over 50s probably won’t even get back into work.

So much vitriol!

How long before we're the demanding the re-opening of workhouses, and sticking those ne'er do wells in them - where they rightly belong. That'll teach them for the poor life choices they've made thus far!

Labour had plenty of decent policies, which would have gone some way to help the truly disadvantaged; albeit not overnight.

Their plan to abolish 0 hour contracts for example, and scrap the failure that is Universal Credit, would have certainly benefitted those presently caught up in a system that does not work; and has only served to further entrench people in poverty.

Seriously, for those of you up on your high horse, just be careful lest an urchin lobs a stone at you, and unseats you.

In the words Tiny Tim, "God bless us, everyone!"

I'm getting at is that o took accountability for my life choices.

As an adult when you could you did. Which is good. But that doesn't help the children who are suffering, Yes some due to feckless parents unfortunately but regardless, Society still needs to help these families. That's not even getting in to the cycle that is poverty. Cant take more hours or they will lose their housing benefit, tell them to get 2 or 3 jobs. Now with zero hour contracts that is an unreliable income. Cant re train because what the OP describes also people dont believe in bla bla. Oh well should have done better in school, then we go back to the start of the cycle, how to do better in school when you're a child of a parent on benefits with hardly any money etc. Its not as easy for everyone as "I see what I didn't want in life so just worked hard"

I thought you were going to do sciences? And how come you could afford to train then the course cancelled and now this morning you can't?

There are posters on here who remind me of the many people who simply do not appreciate how much they have been given by the state in their lives.

Had your baby on the NHS? Send her or him to state school? You studied at school, then college, then university? Ever visit the GP?

Very, VERY few of us are net contributers. Even the richer people on here most likely are not.

I'm not grateful fo a benefit upbringing.
I'm not grateful that my mother chose to sit on her arse , drinking and chain smoking instead of spending the money on food and heat.
I'm not grateful that the woman was able to not work fo 35 years and get money for doing nothing.
This didn't help us as children or my mother with her issues.
The benefits system was truly fucked back then

When the Brexiters lose their jobs and homes, I’m sure they will blame the immigrants/the poor/Labour.

🤷🏻‍♀️

Thestinkycheeseman

You were literally fed, housed and clothed by the people around you.

"And that’s the essence of Tory ideology, isn’t it? Everything is explained on the level of individual choice and action. Nothing is ever systemic or structural."

sorry I don't know how yo make the above bold. Everything in life IS about individual choice and action. You can do anything or be anything if you make the right choices, work hard and don't wait for life to fall in your lap. Look at people like Michelle Obama.

And I pay that back now as an adult in tax to help others.
I don't sit winging about my life choices on social media.

I agree with the posters who comment that it was your decision to have a child. There are so many ways to plan families, 19 is still pretty young when you think doctors train for 8-12 years. Even if you started stacking shelves in a supermarket, it would take years before yo had climbed the ladder to supervisor or management level to demand a higher income. It is not fair on those who decide to train and live on a low income eating sandwiches made with cold bakebeans. YABU

Everything in life IS about individual choice and action. You can do anything or be anything if you make the right choices, work hard and don't wait for life to fall in your lap. Look at people like Michelle Obama.

Bollocks. Michelle Obama is an amazing woman, but she is blessed. She is fiercely intelligent, stunning and healthy. She was brought up in an ordinary working family, not a dysfunctional one.

Everything in life IS about individual choice and action. You can do anything or be anything if you make the right choices, work hard and don't wait for life to fall in your lap. Look at people like Michelle Obama.

What if you, or a member of your family becomes ill or disabled? Is that a choice?

And I pay that back now as an adult in tax to help others.

You almost certainly are not a net contributor. You have taken more than you will ever give back, most likely. Sorry.

So myself and my husband have professional jobs, own home etc. Decent incomes. Savings. Degrees. In an ideal position to have a child right?

Yet if we lost our jobs and had to go on universal credit, should our child have never been born? Would we be called feckless and irresponsible?

Only three paycheques away from homelessness...all it takes is the loss of a job, relationship breakdown, cancer or an accident.

But I'm not winging about getting shit for free

But I'm not winging about getting shit for free

Is that because you already ate it?