To have little sympathy for the two people on GMTV this morning ..............................

[mosschops30]

One was about the heating, guy maybe in his 60's saying he couldnt afford to put his heating on and that he went to bed in the afternoon to keep warm.
All this whilst his enormous plasma tv was on in the background and he gave his interview in front of his PC again with flat screen monitor (something I dont have )

Then woman on with Martin Lewis moaning about not being able to re-mortgage because she had too much credit card debt. Then goes on to say how when she sees something she wants she just goes and buys at and thinks its acceptable to have no less than 6 holidays a year!!!! WTF

Im sorry but its a joke, I'd love 6 holidays a year, but the truth is that mastercard would have to pay for them and I wouldnt be able to pay them back. Thats why I have one!

In stark contrast they showed single parent freezing her ass off in a flat with no central heating sleeping in bed with her 2 kids to keep warm!

'But why is central heating considered essential for a young family? We have a solid fuel/wood burner in the sitting room and when my kids go into other rooms to play they just wear a thick jumper. I suspect central heating is one of the reasons why so many children are overweight. '

LOL! That's why some cities in the world in semi-tropical climates, where it's always warm, having soaring obesity rates.

That's got to be one of the stupidest things I've ever read.

Seriously.

Oh, yes, the old mythical tshirts in January people.

Well, I don't know what sub-tropical clime you're living in, but it certainly isn't Western Scotland in 2009, where even drunken young men are wearing jackets out on the street this time of year.

Perhaps Milly meant that children in a colder house would play more active games but children in a warmer house might settle down to read or watch TV as they don't need to move around to keep warm?

An old bf told me that they didn't have central heating one winter when he was a kid but they made do with two open fires downstairs and body heat to keep warm. I suspect they had heated bricks in the bed as well .

no, chances are if the house is unheated, it's an older home. which, due to no heating over the years, will have damp and rot.

so your kids will get cold after cold after cold.

and god help them if they have asthma or a condition like that already.

Article about genes, central heating, diabetes and obesity, which may explain it. We don't have the same genes as the subtropical climate people:

www.geneticsandhealth.com/2008/02/16/genetic-adaptations-to-surviving-a-cold-clima te-linked-to-diabetes-obesity-and-heart-disease/

I apologise for hijacking this thread with tales of my children's Angela's Ashes type existence!

expat

I am asthmatic and many studies show open fires are better because they help air circulate as they draw off the air. Gas appliances trigger attacks for me, but my house does not. It depends on the trigger for the individual.

Riven, but surely you are, quite rightly, entitled to help with heating? I am not making some competitive jumper wearing point or suggesting that it should be illegal to have central heating! I am just saying not everyone wants it. Houses around where I live often don't have it because there is no mains gas supply and you would have to put in your own supply of oil/gas which is very expensive. So people pick solid fuel heating and open fires like the olden days!

I apologise for any offence I may have caused you; you have quite enough to deal with without feeling criticised by people like me.

yes, Milly, that's why so many children in developing countries die from respiratory diseases living in places with open fires all the time.

that's why we have charities devoted to trying to sort these people out with efficient open-fire cooking units so their kids don't have to breathe in that smoke all the time.

because on the whole it's not good for kids' lungs.

credit card debt, plasma TVs, computers - one thing.

heating your home - another entirely.

especially up here.

we don't have a TV.

it's the landlord's .

we do have central heating, though. it's LPG around here.

MillyR on Wed 07-Jan-09 14:09:54
"I suspect central heating is one of the reasons why so many children are overweight."

So how come Scandinavian children are seldom overweight, despite Scandinavia having had access to modern CH for the last 3 generations and a fairly efficient stove system (kakelugn) before that, whereas the English who still do not have CH on very much have the highest rate of child obesity in Western Europe?

Don't bother to try to answer- I know the answer: far less access to junk food and far more time spent playing out of doors.

You don't really burn that many calories by just sitting shivering on the sofa.

MillyR your statement "I suspect central heating is one of the reasons why so many children are overweight." made me PMSL!

do you sugguest that we all turn our heating down and make are children run around to warm themselves up to prevent them getting fat?

"By expatinscotland on Wed 07-Jan-09 15:28:45
yes, Milly, that's why so many children in developing countries die from respiratory diseases living in places with open fires all the time.

that's why we have charities devoted to trying to sort these people out with efficient open-fire cooking units so their kids don't have to breathe in that smoke all the time.

because on the whole it's not good for kids' lungs. "

There's a difference between an open fire in a properly-constructed grate with a chimney - which does aids airflow (aka "create draughts") - and an indoor cooking fire in a hut, without said chimney.

I grew up without CH- one gas fire in a living room. In winter Mm would put hobs on to try and get kitchen warm, and we'd all sleep in one room. This was up until the late eighties. We qwere quite used to defrosting our clothes in the mrning (used to stand them on the fire top) and my sister in aprticular wold have chest infections all year round.

Mum and Dad recently had CH fitted but In would never choose for my children to grow up like that. An open fire would be a severe risk for us (2 autistic kids in amongst our brood, would be a massive safety hazard) as wel so I very, very glad that we have CH.

We ahd storgae heaters in a past house; I still ahve the scars from where the bloody things got so hot.

There was an article in the Times (I think) a year or so ago about a woman who went off to be a cook or something at an antarctic science station.

Haven't been able to find it

In it she said she lost loads and loads of weight. From shivering.

but surely it's a good thing to have overweight kids, as they wouldn't need the heating on as much!

My fatself most certainly needs less heating than in my skinny days.

Stuff winter fuel allowance just eat more chocolate