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.

Xenia do you really survive only by drinking tap water? You must be very thin.

I am a bit confused by the amount of debate on this poor unsuspecting woman. She seems to be managing pretty well on very little money. She cares about what her children eat and makes more effort than a lot of parents. She dosent squander her money and she has ambitions for her kids.

She wouldnt get much for that tv. What would be the point in selling it. Having a tv is hardly a luxury.

Of course she is not as poor as people living in Bangladesh. Poverty is relative and compared a lot of people in this country she is poor.

Its horrible and boring and hard work being poor. Its not fun relying on benefits.

I agree with Xenia actually.
Her tv is bigger than mine.

The ghost of Marie Antoinette walks amongst us.

my TV is about that size - but given it's age would probably be lucky to get £50 for it.

The article implies that someone is to blame for her not training as a nursery asst. (hardly the height of the career ladder in any case).

Blimey even when I was at my very poorest I could manage a carton of orange juice. I did without ketchup, crisps, jelly - but orange juice? OJ as an uneccessary luxury? Weird.

no it doesn't moondog - Louis is quoted as saying that life doesn't always work out the way you hope it does.

We have a nice new tv that was a gift (ta x) but our old tv was MASSIVE. But we couldnt give the flippen thing away. Being big doesnt make it worth much. Being a flat screen, HD ready thingmummy makes a tv expensive. Her tv looks like the older style to me.

and at 69p she's not going to get much of anything else for that - and at least it's substitue for not having as much fruit and vegetables as she would perhaps like (although she did also buy apples and bananas)

I think the orange juice point illustrates the difference between today's indulgence and life even in the early 80s and I usppose also how things were in the 50s when my parents were first married. I read a book about that recently and the couple didn't have coffee becauase it cost more than tea for example. I think we've forgotten how hard times were or could be and take luxuries today even orange juice for granted. Obviously I don't belong on this thread because I'm well paid and middle class but yes I do drink only tap water even in restaurants, even out on dates. I'm sure it's put many a man off who wants to buy me champagne. I never liked tea or coffee ever and I don't drink.

I don't actually think she sound very extravagent but those things were obvious economies.

xenia - and what is she going to buy with her 69p that she's "saved" by not buying orange juice?

Maybe we could herd all the feckless poor into a local library and put radio 4 on very loudly. Bound to turn them into useful, and more importantly, rich members of society.

god if she'd bought orange squash to drink no doubt she'd be berated just as badly

I am also well paid and middle class and only drink tap water, and also remember the great post-war years of the 80s. It doesn't mean I don't remember what its like to try and survive on JSA. It can pull the most smug and middle class of us right down.

She makes her choices about how to care for her family, and they seem pretty okay given what she has to work with. Could do better, but then, couldn't we all.

But maybe you are right, and this is a thread for lager swilling, fag smoking, chip eating chavs.

Xenia...I still think the odd carton of orange juice is realy an indulagance, tbh...as been ponted out, it counts as 1 a day towards your 5 a day of f&v...

but lol on whoever who said, is Xenia a Troll...Xenia is a very longstanding poster...so, not a troll...

Apologies if someone else has pointed this out, but it niggled me that the article referred to teachers as having "stamped on" Louise's aspiration of being an architect. Just how many universities were likely to have offered her a place with a couple of GCSEs at grade E/F/G? I suspect the careers advisor gently pointed out that it wasn't really an option, not "stamped on" her idea.

But re: the TV. It looks to me very like the dozens of models I saw up at the household recycling dump this morning. Hardly top-of-the-range.

swills lagerlights a faggoes to the chippy

Loopk at her.She's pretty well upholstered.Certainly not going without.

'she was shortly to finish her education with only a handful of Es, Fs and Gs at GCSE. Inspired by a school careers session, she had hoped, briefly, to become an archaeologist until teachers stamped on the aspiration, pointing out she didn't have a chance of getting into university. Instead she thought she might become a nursery assistant and began training, but abandoned it when she got pregnant, aged 18'

Oh no FAQ???

so, not a troll. Quite extraordinary.