Am I the only person who thinks parents should feed their kids outside of school?

[HalloweenDoughnutAnyone]

Obviously it goes without saying I don't want any child to go hungry. But. Am I the only person who thinks parents should feed their kids outside of school?

Just that really.. it's free school dinners. Not free lunch all year round.

I don't understand why people think the tax payer should be paying even more? Maybe, if you can't afford to cover the basics (food and clothing) you should think twice before having a child?

Or should we extend free school dinners, to cover all the food a child needs inside and outside of school ?

I'm not tarring everyone with the same brush but I know people who rely on free school dinners. But have sky tv, expensive mobile contracts etc

I'm not tarring everyone with the same brush but I know people who rely on free school dinners. But have sky tv, expensive mobile contracts etc

I have unexpectedly just lost my job due to Covid.
I have a mobile phone contract that has 18 months to run and cannot be cancelled. i am liable for the payments until it is up
I have a large screen TV (it's 5 years old) and a Sky contract with about 8 months left to run - cannot be cancelled (like the mobile phone)
Likewise my insurance contracts, gym contract and several other things that don't just fuck off into the distance because i'm not being paid.
So with the greatest respect, OP, get your head out of your arse and stop flapping your lips about things you know nothing about.

and have a

What do you mean people should think before they have children? My older children were born long before the pandemic and my youngest during.
I'm incredibly lucky that at the moment my husband and I are still in jobs. What shall I do with them if we lose our jobs? Send them back? What a ridiculous statement to make.
YABVU.

Things go wrong. Circumstances change. It's as simple as that.

You could feel secure and then boom, unemployment, physical/mental illness, giving birth to a child who has health challenges, a pandemic, bereavement, failed attempt at establishing a business, etc

I'm not poor, but I am from a deprived area. A lunch lady used to hand out the free lunch tickets and God bless that woman, she just knew I wouldn't/couldn't eat if she didn't give me a ticket. I'd go into the hall with friends and they'd hand me some of their food but I started refusing through guilt, maybe someone spoke to the lunch lady?

My mum worked, full time, low wage. Middle to end of the month was hard. I started spending more time at my grandmothers because she would always feed me, and hand me change without asking. I walked everywhere to save cash for food. Didn't dare talk to my mum about it, she was trying to keep her shit together with bills.

I'm now married to a very high earner, and I work in the borough I grew up in. I work with poor people. Life isn't kind to us all. Society can be effed up and harsh on people who are already down.

I'm quite happy for my taxes to go on a child having food in their belly.

dont think the Sky TV, mobile contracts thing washes any more Im afraid, these are hardly luxuries now. Especially with everyone so isolated.

Fraud ffs. Its a £15 gift voucher which wouldn't be used otherwise. Which would be a waste as someone paid for it somewhere along the line.
I'm hardly printing money!

If I’ve learned anything today, it’s how ignorant and just plain fucking stupid people are in relation to poverty. And worse, they’re so proud of how thick they are, they’ve taken themselves off to Mumsnet, or Twitter, or Facebook and actually written posts about it, as if they’ve got some great insight that nobody else has ever thought of.

It’s absolutely mortifying - there’s a lot to be embarrassed about Britain of just now but there’s a special kind of burning embarrassment I feel for people like this OP.

Many parents struggle to put food on the table every day for their family during the Summer holidays and will ration every penny for food for those 6 weeks. Let's throw a few curveballs into the mix. Job loss. Death of a family member. Self isolation for negative/positive Covid test. School closures. Localised lockdowns. The list of reasons are endless. So whilst I see your point that people 'should' be able to afford to put food on the table, many people simply can't and children should not be penalised for that through hunger. We live in a time of austerity and food banks and this Covid pandemic has highlighted this factor. We must support our most vulnerable and despite this perhaps not affecting you directly, you need to understand that there are many people that are in dire need.

[quote Watermelon999]@MargotMoon

Why are you being so defensive?

So you and I are pretty much in agreement, but yet despite not knowing anything about me, you are being insulting.

Is no one allowed an opinion?[/quote]

I found your good parents/bad parents language very divisive. The assumption that parents are 'bad' because they didn't go and collect the free food on offer.

And some people would find it utterly humiliating to be forced to go to a soup kitchen every day to eat. Lots of these cater mainly for adults who are sleeping rough. Some community organisations put on family-friendly mealtimes with play activities etc which are much more child-friendly, but they are usually volunteer-led and so it's complete chance whether one exists nearby.

It is sad to see some people are bitter about giving a bit of food to children

I'm laughing so loudly at the thought that swapping my unusable voucher for usable cash being fraud that DS1 just came down and asked whats so funny!

@JustSaying101

Many parents struggle to put food on the table every day for their family during the Summer holidays and will ration every penny for food for those 6 weeks. Let's throw a few curveballs into the mix. Job loss. Death of a family member. Self isolation for negative/positive Covid test. School closures. Localised lockdowns. The list of reasons are endless. So whilst I see your point that people 'should' be able to afford to put food on the table, many people simply can't and children should not be penalised for that through hunger. We live in a time of austerity and food banks and this Covid pandemic has highlighted this factor. We must support our most vulnerable and despite this perhaps not affecting you directly, you need to understand that there are many people that are in dire need.

Also add into that the simple factor of how much food prices have gone up during the pandemic.

I think my shopping is at least 10% more expensive. People already budgetting every penny are going to be hit the hardest by that.

And by the shortages. I've not seen any of the cheaper bags of pasta, rice or tins of beans come back into stock in my shopping delivery. It hasn't caused me a problem because I shop online and the supermarket absorb the cost difference in substitutions. Anyone going into the shop to do a weekly shop or part-weekly shop won't have luxury and will face the higher costs.

@TheFormerPorpentinaScamander

I'm laughing so loudly at the thought that swapping my unusable voucher for usable cash being fraud that DS1 just came down and asked whats so funny!

It's unreal.

It says a lot that some people would rather spend money on a fraud prosecution than £15 a week for children's lunches.

@Powerchewings

*What's your point?

The poster has sold an unusable voucher for cash she can use.*

It’s fraud and should people doing this be caught, there should be some harsh penalties.

Harsh penalties like what? Starving their children? That’ll show them!

@Pumperthepumper

If I’ve learned anything today, it’s how ignorant and just plain fucking stupid people are in relation to poverty. And worse, they’re so proud of how thick they are, they’ve taken themselves off to Mumsnet, or Twitter, or Facebook and actually written posts about it, as if they’ve got some great insight that nobody else has ever thought of.

It’s absolutely mortifying - there’s a lot to be embarrassed about Britain of just now but there’s a special kind of burning embarrassment I feel for people like this OP.

Yep, thick is the word. I called someone "fucking thick" on a different thread and got my comment deleted. Because bigotry is a-ok, but calling someone repellent is a big no.

What the point of having food in the fridge if you dont have the electric to run the fridge Powercheeings

Or spending £6 on bus fare to get to asda when all you need is bread and milk?

Some people really don't live in the real world.

Ah, fuck off. There's a pandemic going on if you haven't noticed. I've volunteered to buy food for families who need it this half term so their children don't go hungry. Have some compassion.

Imagine what a tw*t you must be to begrudge a child a hot meal.

Errr, you do know not all people who need help started out that way? Marriages breakdown, abuse, losing a job, health issues, there’s a million different reasons for people not having any money. Benefits barely cover the necessary things. People on low income jobs can also have very little money, the price of living has gone up but wages haven’t.

@Brefugee

I'm not tarring everyone with the same brush but I know people who rely on free school dinners. But have sky tv, expensive mobile contracts etc

I have unexpectedly just lost my job due to Covid.
I have a mobile phone contract that has 18 months to run and cannot be cancelled. i am liable for the payments until it is up
I have a large screen TV (it's 5 years old) and a Sky contract with about 8 months left to run - cannot be cancelled (like the mobile phone)
Likewise my insurance contracts, gym contract and several other things that don't just fuck off into the distance because i'm not being paid.
So with the greatest respect, OP, get your head out of your arse and stop flapping your lips about things you know nothing about.

and have a

Do you get child benefit? Do you get tax credits? Will you get unemployment benefit? Do you not have any savings that you built up when you were employed? Have you called these providers and explained your circumstances and the hardship you face to work out how they can help? I'd be doing that first to ensure my kids can eat before expecting the government to pay. And actually its not the government paying - it's other taxpayers.

Child benefit on its own should be paying for childrens' food and a priority use case for it - stop expecting others to foot the bill.

DontBeShelfish it’s just incredible. People who know fuck-all about gardening suggesting people simply grow tomatoes. As
someone who grows the vast majority of our fruit and veg 1) it costs an absolute fortune to set up 2) it needs a lot of space 3) it’s very obviously fucking seasonal 4) it’s very, very unreliable because it’s so weather dependent. Yet people are happily saying ‘why don’t they just stick some carrots in the ground?’ as if EVERYONE ELSE is the thick one for not thinking of it.

@MargotMoon

So would you not call someone who prioritises feeding their child despite having very little a good parent?

But you must know of people (like I do), who are in the same situation as the parent who has very little, but who seem to have different priorities, and feeding their children is not on the list. It’s not just about not collecting a food parcel. There is no comparison between these two types of parent, and to try and lump them all in together is not fair.

I think there needs to be a better system. Not all children on free school meals will go hungry and not all children who are not entitled will have food every day at the moment. I think schools should be given a small pot for holiday meals and that it should go on family basis and it should not be vouchers etc. It should be meals provided.

@Pumperthepumper

DontBeShelfish it’s just incredible. People who know fuck-all about gardening suggesting people simply grow tomatoes. As someone who grows the vast majority of our fruit and veg 1) it costs an absolute fortune to set up 2) it needs a lot of space 3) it’s very obviously fucking seasonal 4) it’s very, very unreliable because it’s so weather dependent. Yet people are happily saying ‘why don’t they just stick some carrots in the ground?’ as if EVERYONE ELSE is the thick one for not thinking of it.

@Pumperthepumper

I completely agree with you on this, growing veg is a bloody nightmare , really expensive, completely unpredictable and has only ever done us about one meal, if that.