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.

why are the fathers not on the birth certificates?

nothing wrong with oven chips, in moderation.

I have read the article but I havent read the thread, I can't face it. My heart is breaking for 'Louise' and her children. The shopping list, I sat and stared at it and compared it to my shopping last week.

I want to do something, I want to help, I want this to stop. Where do you start? Seriously, what can we do practically, now today and every day to help these families.

If you do have furniture that is in good nick that you no longer need, who do you give it to? I contacted the council who offered to send it to the tip.

So the TV is the children's sole source of entertainment ?
I'm sorry having been a single parent and in her exact shoes a long time ago before tax credits etc when I got £90 a week to feed and clothe myself and DD and top up my rent (which was £20 out of that princely sum), the TV was the last priority on my list, if I'd been able to sell it for a tenner then I would have put that £10 to better use.
Plus you'd have to find money for a TV license too.

I used to live in Chelmsley Wood in Birmingham where I swear I would have gone on the game if necessary to get out of before my child started school it was that bad but the help available to get me back to work was fantastic.

I used my loaf and figured if I went back to college the college would pay for my nursery place so if I got DD to nursery, using my college paid for bus pass, for 8am then she got breakfast, lunch and tea provided for her as part of the fees, we also then had free travel everywhere at the weekend and the money I saved funded (student union subsidised) day trips out.
We had sure start days out too, internet access at college to chat on mumsnet but seriously if you pull yourself together there is so much on offer it's not funny.

I tried to give my mum's furniture to an asylum seekers' charity. It was good stuff but they said it was 'old fashioned'. Luckily Oxfam wasn't so snooty.

And another thing.

Why Oh Why are oven chips always referred to on Mumsnet as the ultimate signifier of irresponsible parenthood?

They are just spuds. Frozen veg. Far lower in fat than regular chips, no waste 'cos kids love 'em and they keep indefinately.

God I hate the Food Police.

lol at 'old fashioned', we tried to get rid of our old sofas and no-one would haave them as they did not have a fire warning on the bottom of them.

so after all the charities turned them down, i listed them on ebay for 99p hopeing to find someone to take them off my hands so i didn't have to PAY the council to take them and they went for 150 quid.!

I think Betel of Britain do something like the furniture thing Fio suggested.

I think because peeling and chopping a 10p potato is so god damn easy it's seen as the height of laziness to pay £1.50 for bag of them.

I adore oven chips, and we eat a lot of them, but if I only had £20 per week for food, I'd buy loose potatoes/pasta/rice/bread instead.

as i've already said, nothing wrong with oven chips, in moderation.

Also out of interest, why aren't charities giving furniture to women like 'Louise'? Surely with young children she would be a priority?

(Btw, I know it isn't all about furniture but it would seem a relatively simple thing to help her with)

quite right, sorrento and strawbezza.

i mean it's common sense surely

When dd was made redundant we went from a 'this is what we are buying' to a 'what can we buy' when shopping, for everything, not just food.

£62 jobseekers really does not go far. It sounds ok, but then something happens. Like you run out of a major, say washing powder. Or you need an £8 fuse for your shower to work, cos everything breaks when your skint, and you're screwed till the next payout. It gets really really boring always having to say no, and eat potatoes and beans.

We rode it out and now he works, so we get to keep the house.

Can't face reading thread either. I know that 'truly poor' probably didn't used to involve having a tv or a phone, but these things seem to now be normal and not luxury items. The country is based on material aquisition and consumerism. Tv's will always be more important than nutition to a good % of the population.

Absolutely so buy rice instead then ?

Our frozen oven chips cost 69p. Potatoes have gone up in price recently too.

AND SHE DID GET POTATOES! SHE BOUGHT THEM FROM A DIFFERENT SHOP!!!!!

you can bake real potatoes in the oven you know.
cut them into chip and sprinkle a little oil on.
they don't taste the same they taste nicer.

anyway i'm leaving this thread as it's annoying me.

The cultural expectation of the men I know is that if you have kids you have to look after them, house them and provide emotional input etc.

That hasn't changed for the majority of the population.

There is homestart for help too.
It's interesting to see that the posters who have been on benefit/on benefit, don't see louise as any worse off than the rest of us claiming them! She's an example of many of us,its how it is on benefits. We cope. Louise copes. It's nothin g new to us.

I agree Jean, somebody give this woman £500 and sit back and watch.
I've seen it a million times, the first thing bought will be loads of pop and crisps and sweeties for the babbies, followed by a pair of adidas trainers each for the kids and then more tat. The electricity metre tokens and food for freezer would be bought after 20 fags.