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.

What if you couldn't finda job JeanPoole? Because we were still in the middle of a recession?

And what if a government was telling you that you weren't allowed to wait until your DD went to school, you had to go back to work when she was 3? (Which is what is being proposed just now)

well if you can be imprisioned for not paying your tv license......

how you like to enforce fathers to pay then?

Ok take their drivers licenses off them then ?

The point is send the message it's not acceptable and this girl didn't name her childs father on the birth certificate is that right ?
So she could claim benefits as a single mother whilst he lived there and worked, that's the only reason you would leave the father of your two children off the birth certificate.

A good reason not to feed your children on rice instead of chips is that they'd get rickets! There is basically no nutrition in polished white rice (and brown rice is more expensive). Unless you can afford to eke the rice out with veg or meat, it's a really bad choice nutritionally.

Those of you talking about the cheap bananas on offer at Morrison or wherever seem to have forgotten one simple fact: if you don't happen to have transport you have to shop at the nearest shop. In my case, because I live in a pleasant suburb, this happens to mean a well stocked COOP with a good range of vegetables and fruit. If you live on an estate, the only shop available is likely to be very expensive (to pay for the higher risk of vandalism) and have an extremely limited range of real food, the kind of food this poster thinks the woman should be buying. I have been in these shops and they do seem to sell mainly junk, nothing that I would consider real food.

T'was the drug dealers sister!!! Though she did ask me if I wanted her to get her brother to steal me some jewellry I declined.

I was afraid of the drug dealer himself. I was convinced he was going to break into my house so I borrowed my dad's Akita and pretended he lived with me, I would take him in the front door and then back out of the backdoor so people thought he was still in the house.

I never said it was nice living on a council estate, but as Marla said, the people can be nice.

Funnily enough, Marla, I am in the NE.

Sorrento - where did it say that she'd left the fathers name off the certificate?

And as for the driving licence - great you make it even less likely that DH will find a job round here without a driving licence.

I'm sure I would find a job, I have been offered two this year and i am not looking.

if not I would go self employed or start my own business.

I really am going to leave this thread now, as all this there's no hope, she/we have no choices and chances in life, is making my blood boil tbh.

good luck in life with your poor me, poor me attitudes, i think you might need it.

"So she could claim benefits as a single mother whilst he lived there and worked, that's the only reason you would leave the father of your two children off the birth certificate."

Staggered by the ignorance that comment reveals. Staggered.

LOL at poor poor me

Poor poor you

you'd return to work when your daughter started school - fine - but what if he left when she was still pre-school age?

Are those 2 jobs you've been offered ones that you can fit around childcare?

And if you couldn't find a job because of the recession how do you think being self employed or starting a business would actually work???

@ JeanPoole. If your husband left you with nothing, not a penny and all you had to get by on was benefits, how do you propose that you would start your own business?

"So she could claim benefits as a single mother whilst he lived there and worked, that's the only reason you would leave the father of your two children off the birth certificate."

Staggered by the ignorance that comment reveals. Staggered.

Are you ? You need a sniff of the coffee then.

If you're in a loving happy relationship with the man of your dreams and raising a family together before it all goes pearshaped why else would you not name your babies father, twice ?

Oh and off the top of my head I know two people that have done just that, shot them both in the foot though because they then couldn't get maintence when the fathers left them.

I have'nt read the entire thread but readthe first and last few pages.

Did the article definately say that she recieves £130ish a week? If so I assume she gets her council tax and housing paid for her, so basically she has £130 to sort out bills and shopping.

We are a family of 3 living on £260 a week because DP works and we cant afford childcare ATM, I was paid off work in January so we have been left with 2 mobile phone contracts, broadband etc that we cannot get out of. We pay full rent of £65 a week plus £30 a week council tax and then other bills on top after all that I am left with £50 for shopping, gas and electric we just manage and I mean just.

If that girl has no bills other than mobile, loan and bank repayment which arent much how exactly is she left with £20 for food?

Either way its still not enough but it would seem she has a damn sight more than us and I wouldnt consider us desperately poor compared to some yes some bills go unpaid and yes we may not have fancy things but we get by in the end.

Oh and we have a table

I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry at some of the attitudes on this thread. How on earth is someone who has to budget for every penny supposed to start up their own business or become self-employed?????

Maybe if the fathers of her children refused to come to the registry office with her? You cannot add the father's name unless he attends.

"Are you ? You need a sniff of the coffee then.

If you're in a loving happy relationship with the man of your dreams and raising a family together before it all goes pearshaped why else would you not name your babies father, twice ?"

Leaving aside your vulgar coffee comment, I have no idea. But you appear to be suggesting that the only reason all mothers who leave the names of their children's fathers off their birth certificates, is for the purposes of benefit fraud.

Is that what you are suggesting, or are you just referring to two random women you know?

I apologize i'd read fircone's comments on page 7 and assumed she'd was quoting facts about our Louise, but yes the two women I knew were doing precisely that, as I said by not naming the fathers they are now buggered as they can't get a penny from them, so what goes around comes around.

Nothing vulgar about coffee ??????

Eeeeuuwww, she doesn't actually KNOW them, HBLB She doesn't mix with those people.

What if your DH up and left you JeanPoole?

I'm guessing your reaction would be along the lines of "how f'ing dare you..rude bitch...of course he wouldn't..you don't know him...WTF do you know? etc"

There a lots of mums who never thught it would happen to them either. The point is, you just don't know.

Unfortunately one of the scumbags is a relative SH

And BTW how does one get offered a job without looking for it? I understand about headhunting but don't you already have to be working?

Not that I would know..I don't move in such rarified circles