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Original poster

To think that Emma Thompson is detached from reality

72 replies

ILIVEONBENEFITS · 02/04/2009 00:06

Emma Thompson says that when she was a child her parents were "penniless actors" and so there was no suggestion of her and her sister being sent away to boarding school.She says her mum and dad worked because they needed the money and they were raised by their parents not by strangers thank you very much.But she also mentions that she and her sister had au pairs to help look after them.I think its a little odd to suggest that you were brought up by your parents who worked because they needed the money which they then presumably paid to the au pairs who also brought you up.
My mum and dad worked because they needed the money which they used to pay the household bills and as far as I know we didn't have one au pair let alone two.
I know poverty is all relative but for pitys sake isnt it a bit silly to suggest your parents were penniless and brought you up themselves if you go on to admit that they employed two au pairs to "help" raise you and your sister?
Is "I was raised in abject poverty" going to be the new celebrity admission now that "I was abused as a child" and "I have/had dyslexia" seems to have fallen out of fashion?

OP posts:
FAQinglovely · 02/04/2009 01:39

I remember walking home from the shop - where the sweets were all in the big jars on the shelve behind the counter (not sure where they put the fags in them days ) - clutching my little white paper bag of sweets >> and 5p crisps and my brother (as he used to get 2p a week) used to get the Beano for about 10p

ScottishThistle · 02/04/2009 01:39

Yes sure you're right, I'm sure back then they got a fiver/food and lodgings!

ScottishThistle · 02/04/2009 01:42

My Dad's friendworked for a sweetie company, he used to pass our town and drop in with two HUGE jars of sweets every couple of months.
I guess we were luckier than some. Cold gravel, no teeth left then!?!

dittany · 02/04/2009 01:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Shells · 02/04/2009 01:55

Agree dittany. I actually quite like Emma Thompson. She's got strong opinions and sticks up for what she believes in.

And holidays in Scotland are still holidays. Penniless people don't have holidays.

JodieO · 02/04/2009 01:56

Agree with you Dittany. Camden isn't exactly rough either, I was brought up in East London and that's far more rough tbh.

ScottishThistle · 02/04/2009 02:03

Not sure I agree with the fact that because you can afford a holiday means you were middle class.
My family were far from well off but my parents were frugal so we had holidays every year ~ caravan on the English coast or to the Hebrides to visit relatives.

FAQinglovely · 02/04/2009 02:08

Emma's mothers family were from Dunoon - I think it was a long standing family home - but I don't think Dunoon could ever be called (or ever will be in the foreseeable future) upper class.

And of course they're upper middle class now - but there's no way on this earth that 2 actors at the start of their careers in London would have been wealthy - it just wouldn't have happened. Of course as she grew older into her teens they were more succesful, and I should imagine the wages were somewhat better

But blimey even my parents managed to afford their own home in the 70's - at the grand price of £7,000 for a decent sized 3 bedroom and my dad definitely wasn't on a good wage - I remember freezing my arse off in winter as we were only allowed to have the fire lit after a certain time in the evening BRRRRR >

Both her parents came from working class families, and they themselves were working class at the start of their careers. I don't suppose an actor who wasn't yet famous earned much at the Old Vic in the late 60's and early 70's.

But you see that's what happens when you're good at something - you can go from nothing to something over time and then suddenly you're not working class anymore.

I think the school is irrelevant tbh - even when I was at school (and I'm much younger than Emma Thompson) you went to your local school - in her case it was a comprehensive - that happens to be very good and has a history of being very good.

ScottishThistle · 02/04/2009 02:17

I also spent many a winter sitting next to the electric fire for 5 minutes to thaw my toes and got dressed for school under my quilt!

FAQinglovely · 02/04/2009 02:20

they stayed with family on "holiday"

and why on earth are people talking about the Camden of now?? The woman is going to be 50yrs old this month - places do change you know.

And even now - while of course not the worst of the areas to live in - 56% of children in Camden were in the "low income families" bracket - so either parents not working (39%) or receiving both CTC and WTC (17%). More than the average in London, Central London and England on average.

Quite shocking really for an area which presents itself as a respectable area to live.

FAQinglovely · 02/04/2009 02:23

you had a quilt I had a sheet and a blanket - 2 in the depths of winter

Electric fire - ooo no - it was a log fire, and I remember sitting there making "paper logs" with my mum to save money on the cost of heating it LOL.

ScottishThistle · 02/04/2009 02:24

FAQinglovely, we know we're right.

Let's go to bed, well I'm on the sofa (but almost a bed)

ScottishThistle · 02/04/2009 02:28

I may be slightly younger than you?

We had an electric fore in the living room and no other heating until Mum bought a storage heater for the hall upstairs. Central heating installed when I was 18!

My Mum is one of 5 (girls), 4 of them slept in a double bed and if it was cold they threw on another duffel coat!

FAQinglovely · 02/04/2009 02:28

yea - think I'm on the sofa tonight - I'll never get up in the morning otherwise

I have a friend who's currently squatting in Hampstead actually (well he was a friend years ago, more of an acquaintance now )

FAQinglovely · 02/04/2009 02:29

no - you're 6yrs older than me (well if you're telling the truth on your profile )

ScottishThistle · 02/04/2009 02:30

I'm currently dossing with my Aunt in Kent whilst job hunting!

Hence why I'm up half the night!

ScottishThistle · 02/04/2009 02:32

I'm 36, funny you talk older (or maybe I'm not yet grown up!)

FAQinglovely · 02/04/2009 02:33

well I like to think of myself as being 18 - so therefore you're only 24

right sleep - my lovely DS's will be up in a matter of hours............

ScottishThistle · 02/04/2009 02:35

How did you know, I am actually 24 (in my head)

Goodnight!

Pruners · 02/04/2009 06:53

Message withdrawn

BoffinMum · 02/04/2009 07:08

I thought we were well off as kids until I read this. Now I realise we were apparently on the poverty line. My parents couldn't afford much childcare at all, and just had to park us in the garage until they got home.

cory · 02/04/2009 08:00

Several of my friends were au pairs in the seventies and you certainly didn't get paid £30 a week. I got paid £35 a week when I started out as an archaeologist in the mid-eighties, but that was without being fed as an au pair would have been.

Au pairs in the seventies got a few pounds for pocket money, and if they worked for a poorer family food could be extremely plain and simple and not necessarily a lot of it. And not all families employing au pairs in the seventies were at all well off: you didn't have to be because you didn't have to feed them very well or pay them very much.

ssd · 02/04/2009 08:11

op, YANBU

lack of money takes away your choices

Pruners · 02/04/2009 08:17

Message withdrawn

expatinscotland · 02/04/2009 08:18

YANBU.