To think the public have the society they deserve

[GoodnightAdeline]

Just read yet another post in our town mums’ Facebook group about the ‘lunchbox letter’. In essence a local primary has written to parents asking them to stop putting sweets and other garbage in their kids’ lunch boxes and all hell has broken loose. ‘How dare they tell my what to feed my child’ ‘tell them to fuck off’ ‘we’ll give the kids an eating disorder’ ‘my kid will only eat cheese strings and cola bottles, do they want her to starve’ etc

It was the same with the ‘your child is overweight’ letters, the ‘please send them in with water not Prime’ letters, the ‘please watch them as they cross the road after school because we had a near miss the other day and are getting complaints’ letters.

After a million such posts with defensive, vitriolic replies I’m beginning to think, why bother improving the NHS/dentistry etc? Why bother helping people who won’t help themselves.

YES I KNOW I’M BEING UNREASONABLE but the above mindset just seems so prevalent it depresses me to unreasonableness!

Stories is about right 🤣

If you ever, and I mean ever, and I mean you MPs , lawyers , CEOs and all, bought drugs of any sort, or supported decriminalisation as recreational, then you've got the knives, guns, domestic abuse and thuggery that your actions instigated.
Alcohol had similar effect . It paid tax , mostly . Spent on services, mostly.
Do you hear me Gove, Cameron , Sussex etc?

Spend a couple of weeks working in a certain very popular high St bakery and you're eyes will be opened. Parents with kids on the way home from school calling in for "snacks"
£20 and a bag full of donuts, cookies and pastries later and off they go.
And yes many of them are very overweight.

Re. Soaps - it’s a tricky one, as a creative writer and former educator/support worker, I’d say a lot of art is imitating life rather than the other way around. And despite the drama there’s definitely some great hard hitting issues covered by soaps especially Eastenders which has helped educated people /started conversations on a range of issues over the years from domestic violence, farming (a type of private fostering that went on involving the children of black immigrants) IVF, HIV genetic illnesses and miscarriages, steroid abuse - just to name a few of the topics they’ve covered recently. And I love the diversity of the cast. The Panesars for example have added so much to the episodes.

But I have to say I do wonder sometimes if these soaps normalise things such as having a revolving door of partners who move in, in quick succession even while they have kids? I mean that’s a safeguarding risk.
And having children quickly with every partner you have, so all the women characters seem to have multiple fathers for their children - which happens yeah but it’s just overly prevalent in soaps.

And I notice they all seem to reach for alcohol every time they’re stressed. I hadn’t noticed that initially, but my mate whose mum was an alcoholic was the one who pointed it out and I’ve definitely noticed it since!

So yeah that is arguably the flipside..I can see it from both points of view.

Re. Soaps - it’s a tricky one, as a creative writer and former educator/support worker, I’d say a lot of art is imitating life rather than the other way around.

Nobody would watch soaps if there wasn't any drama.

Im waiting for a proper true childfree by choice character Apart from the wife of the doctor character in Corrie (the doc who had an affair with Maxine) i dont remember any.

Yes that would be great!

I was watching a show or movie recently, can’t remember what it was - maybe something on Netflix - and I was a bit annoyed they had all the child free characters all say they regretted it 🙄

oh FFS Why do they always do this!

Oh and what pissed me off about the childfree docs wife in Corrie.............they made her as hard as nails

Ugh so annoying 😣 lazy stereotypes! I write scripts so if I ever get to write for TV I’ll remember to create a multi-dimensional child free character!