AIBU to be sad and shocked by this article?

[LittleDorrit]

Have just been reading this:

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/mar/18/child-poverty-labour-eradicate-promise

and I am shocked by the conditions this family is living in, but in particular how little/what sort of food they are able to afford.

It's not so much an AIBU issue, but just wondered whether others in similarly difficult circumstances think this is typical, or whether the mother could try to buy other types of food (e.g. rice, lentils, etc.) or perhaps be able to afford to spend a bigger proportion of her budget on food... £20 is very little.

No daftpunk, I'm pretty confident it's people who can't accept that situations change who are thick.

Who's keeping on having babies? Not the woman in the article, for sure, and she's what we're discussing here.

DSM; that's different...but plenty of women keep having children when they can't feed the ones they've got.

She didn't 'keep having children'. She has two.

Should she have been sterilised due to the fact she was brought up poor?

i wouldn't have children if i couldn't afford them..end of!...what's the bloody point...it's just a life of struggle.

i have worked for many years with homeless families and have come to the conclusion that the system is totally messed up.

Here is a woman who is willing to work but the main thing that is holding her back is in her opinion lack of experience. In fact that isn't normally a problem. I have sorted out jobs for people who have never worked for a multitude of reasons. Many speaking little or no english.

The problem that really holding her back ime is lack of self-belief.

No one she know works. How can she feel she can then.

If I were in charge I would throw huge amounts of money at schemes amimed at getting everyone that can back to work.
I would set up goevernment run work in a range of areas; from clerical to physical, where people learn trades on the job, build up confidence and have it linked to ongoing training/education. So 4 days work and 1 day education.

Build up people's confidence, get them used to earning money and getting up in the morning, increase basic literacy and numeracy. And theredfore help them help their children's expectations inlife.

It may cost a lot to set up. But if it gets people and all of the future generations out of this depressing cycle, it will be cost effective in the long run.

Sterilise the poor, is that your solution?

Greeney - welcome back . And I completely agree with you about her managing the food budget v. well. I can't believe the amount of - " I know the likes of her, she'ld spend her money on westlife cds and trainers if she had any more of it" on this thread.

Oh ffs. I simply do not believe there are people out there who think

"Hmm, I'm so poor I can't feed my children. I know what'll rectify this situation, I'll have another baby!"

Of course in an ideal world we would all have children at the perfect time when we could provide every single material thing they might ever need. But life's a bitch and it rarely works out perfectly for anyone. Some people have a shitter time than others. Is that really so hard to accept without all this 'they should stop having babies then' bullshit?

Can you really not believe that people might just might have children and then find their circumstances change?

DSM; make them pay for they're own children...that would solve the problem...i wouldn't throw money at some thick idiot on a northern sink estate to have 8 kids..

rebee - every country in the world as people living in poverty.

Some people living in Africa who are not living in poverty you would probably say they are - because they don't have the things that you and I deem "essentials".

Poverty is relative.

And why am I not suprised to come home and read the last page of this thread and see it's descended to what is.

God forbid that anyone should have children if they're not flush and 3 degrees and a PHd behind them ............still I suppose it would solve all the 3rd world problems wouldn't it

daftpunk.. what on earth are you talking about?

Noonki speaks sense. My best friend in my teen years was a bright guy who I'd be very surprised to see make something of himself because the opportunities and the belief in his ability to make something of his life just weren't there. It's a real shame.

These threads are the same regurgitated stuff.

Poor people shouldn't have babies

they should eat better food on 2p a week and be grateful.

They should get a job and stop scrounging

there are people up the road all on jsa living the life of riley with mercs in the drive and hugh tvs they cant fit in the house.

Soon there will be 3 million out of work and claiming benifit and that could be you

oh hang on Londonne - I left school with Scottish equivalents to A levels, but nothing more - I wasn't working at 18 - should I not have had my children?

anyone else notice the advert at the bottom for giving to aid poverty in africa?

We should get daftpunk into parliament, she's clearly got all the answers.

fio..i'm talking generally...i'm fucking sick of paying for other peoples kid's!

daftpunk - should I perhaps then give up my children since my marriage has broken up and I can't currently afford to feed them and house them without state support??

'TBH I doubt the partner was a well paid professional! '

Hopefully not! The last thing the world needs is more nob-ends like . . .

[self-edited]

I feel very fortunate for where I grew up and the family I grew up in.

Message withdrawn

daftpunk- hopeyou don't claim child benefit my BIL would call you a right scrounger. He doesn't want to pay for anyone else's kid's either

expat my northern friend - tell me - should I read back through the posts since 2.20 this afternoon or am I going to end up working myself into a frenzy over ignorance and bigoted views???

My mum was pg with my sister when she was 18, and pg with me when she was 22. Unmarried and with an abusive partner. From what I can work out, she left him when I was about two years old because a) he cheated constantly and b) he started hitting my sister
My mum grew up poor. She remembers how on a Thursday they would be scrounging around for change on the floor to get money together to buy some eggs and bread for food. She did okay at school, but they were poor.
Her messgae to us when we were growing up were along the lines of "do well at school" "earn enough to stand on your own two feet" "dont get pregnant in your teens" etc.
She met my (step) dad when me and my older sister were still young, and we moved to a different area, which I think really was lucky. I ended up growing up in a happy family, in a good area, going to good schools. Mum worked and pushed herself along, and kept drumming messages into me and my two sisters.
I know my life may have turned out very differently. She could have stayed with "the sperm donor", we could still be living on benefits and on a council estate, going to failing schools, in a circle of domestic abuse... I dont think I would be where I am now if that was the childhood/teen years I had.