In thinking that a couple living in a one bed flat with 2 kids should not have decided to get 2 dogs ?

[nevereatbrownsnow]

Am watching tower block of commons and really don't see the logic in this.

Both dogs are peeing everywhere, those children have no beds and there little playspace is saturated in dog urine.

Children deserve a bed at least and cleanish floors to play on, makes me feel

Seems selfish, they have little money and feeding two dogs of that size is not cheap.

Feel really sorry for the poor girl in temporary accomodation tho.

[Rollmops]

Let me guess, the dogs are staffies or similar....

[puddinghead]

I turned over after the bit where the woman told Mark Oaten the shopping budget was about £150 - What?! It's a rare week that our shopping even reaches that and that would be when we need detergents/light bulbs or 'extras'. They were shopping in Asda FFS - what were they buying? I doubt it was extra virgin olive oil.

I bet they bought a cupboard full of baby food jars because that's what babies eat innit.

[nevereatbrownsnow]

Nah not staffies, scruffy mongrels, which peed.

[GetOrfMoiLand]

I missed that bit re weekly shopping budget being £150. What did that buy? Was that just food and other essential such as nappied.

Christ I don't spend half of that in Waitrose and Sainsbos. What were they buying. Was it a huge family or something?

[nevereatbrownsnow]

£150 I missed that bit

I would freaking love to spend that a week.

[puddinghead]

Well £42 of it was her fags. 'She's got to have some pleasures in life' I think she said ....

[tartyhighheels]

I agree that councils and central government have responsibilities to house people but parents in particular have a responsibility to not make things worse for themselves don't they? My cousin is a non working person on benefits who will not work even though her daughter is almost 8 - she was evicted from a flat for not paying rent (even though she had HB)and was put in a temp 1 bed bungalow - she waited a year and was offered a 2 bed flat, got herself a dog and refused the flat and was offered a place with a garden. She now has 2 huge dogs a cat and kittens, rats, guinea pigs. She lives in a complete shitehole and when it gets too bad social services send someone round to do her tidying up!!!! She is a bit thcik but doesn't have learning difficulties as such she is just lazy and people keep picking up for her.

Personally, like the people mentioned in the op, she has made things worse for herself and her child because of the choices she has made. I cannot understand it when people allow this sort of thing to happen in their homes. I am certainly not even houseproud, i am an uber-scruff myself but allowing dogs to wee all over the place it just horrible.

Also did anyone else feel really uncomfy with the little girl sat on a mattress telling the camera how lucky she was to have dreadfully worn out pink shoes..... was this the same family?

[pooexplosionsareimproving]

Who cares what sort of dogs they are?

Is anyone here actually arguing that this setup is perfectly okay? FFS, if we can't all agree that there is something seriously fucked up with small children playing in dog piss and sleeping on the floor then we should just give it all up now.

[ruddynorah]

she told mark to look for baby food, then baby milk, then they went and got the pampers nappies. they most probably think this is them spending on the kids and getting them the best.

she did make an interesting point though re. mark's expenses 'why did you spend £160 on an iron when you can get one for £14.99 in argos?!'

so she spends tax payers money on pampers not aldi nappies. he spends tax payers money on a top of the range iron from john lewis, not the basic one from argos.

[puddinghead]

If the dogs peed everywhere and it didn't seem to bother them, why not let the children go nappy free and pee on the floor too - more money for fags

[nevereatbrownsnow]

I know poo

[Morloth]

150 is a lot to spend a week on shopping - I am pretty sure I don't get near that and we all eat like horses.

ruddynorah one of the hardest things I think about being poor is how expensive it is. If you can afford to spend the 160 upfront on an iron then you are good for 15 years or so. We have found the same with a lot of stuff, if you can afford quality to start with you actually end up spending less than someone who has to buy the cheapy every couple of years or so.

Pratchett talks about it in relation to boots. If you can afford $50 for a good pair of boots then you have warm dry feet for 10 years, if you can only afford $10 then you need to buy a new pair every year. So not only are your feet often cold and wet, you have spent twice as much on boots as the rich person did.

The more money you have, the less money you need.

[KERALA1]

Totally agree with the OP. Our old neighbours lived in a 1 bedroom flat and had a toddler and a baby and claimed benefits. In their wisdom they then acquired two dogs, one a scary staffie type which subsequently would escape and terrify everyone it would leap into our garden to shit despite us putting up a high fence. Their cute little well tended garden soon became a horrid yard full of dog poo and rubbish - nowhere for their children to play. I tried to talk to her mother to mother as to why having these animals was such a good idea - the response was that they were for protection . Ho hum we eventually worked out they were dealing drugs. Didnt watch the programme last night but maybe this was why they had these dogs? You cant exactly call the police if one of your "clients" gets tricky I suppose? (outside of living next door to these people my practical knowledge of drug dealing is limited.

Needless to say we moved out.

[ruddynorah]

very true morloth

[LoveBeingAMummy]

junglist1
It's not right that families are caged up in one room while single people have more bedrooms than they need. I don't care if they're old, what about the research that's been done showing poorer educational achievement among children living in one room??!! The effects on mental health for the whole family? Still never mind they're only shitty underclass brats angry angry angry

If you are being serious with that comment then maybe its time i left this thread before i get myself into trouble.

caged up? You make it sound like they don't have a choice, lots of them do.
Why do people seem to not care about old people? Why are some people having babies when they cannot afford to look after them? Why are some people spending my (tax) money on smoking various things instead of on their children when they are in need of very basic things?

Have you ever stopped to think about what the parents are putting children through? About why they are putting them in that situation? Why aren't they doing something to help their family out of this situation?

[junglist1]

Why do people keep mentioning staffies? They're a popular dog breed. And? A lot of generalisations on this thread. Why don't you just say all council estate scum own staffies because they want to look hard and don't care if their kids get eaten. If that's your irrational close minded prejudice, say so explicitly.
Not to anyone in particular, but staffies have been mentioned a number of times on this thread.

[nevereatbrownsnow]

I second morloth, after 6 years and 3 cheapo washing machines totalling roughly £900 , me and dp scrimpped and saved to buy a miele, it cost £600 which is a lot, had it 3 yrs so far with no problems (touch wood etc) If it lasts 6 yrs I will be happy,and £3oo better off !!

[junglist1]

Are you clueless? What homeless parents are putting their children through??!! Oh I'm sorry if I can't afford private rent and don't want to move house every 6 months. Excuse me, I lived like that for 5 fucking years how fucking dare you??????????? WE WERE CAGED UP IN ONE ROOM AND SHARED A BATHROOM WITH 2 OTHER FAMILIES. Have you ever had to live like that?? Oh no, because you're a better parent

[junglist1]

Yes please do leave the thread, better still, go and live on Mars somewhere

[2old4thislark]

I agree with everything nevereatbrownsnow
has said. I didn't watch the programme as I knew it would make me cross!

I def agree with the comment about not breeding them if you can't feed them - well said!

I think it's sad that some kids have such sh*t lives - literally so in this case!

Ps would you like to be PM?

[nevereatbrownsnow]

When council accomodation is underoccupied it should be vacated and the current occupiers moved to sheltered accomodation, flats etc as these are family homes and were built to house families comfortably.

I'ts not nice but has to be done,in my area there are whole steets being demolished to make way for better housing, the majority of the occupents are elderly. One couple are in their 80's and have kept there sons bedroom as a shrine for the past 40 yrs after had died suddenly, not nice either, but has to be done. Such is life.

Personally if I were an oap living in a 4 bed house I would find it hard to sleep at night knowing that somewhere an entire family had one room to call 'home'.

LovebeingAMummy, you are an idiot, anybody can find themselves homeless, I have an inate fear of it which is why I paid off my mortgage as soon as possible.

[nevereatbrownsnow]

Why thank you 2old, yes of course I should be pm ,it makes sense after all

I am now off to polish my rusty halo

[nevereatbrownsnow]

Thats different to falling on hard times and DELIBERATELY breeding more and not wanting work.

We have spent yrs on and off the dole with my dp desperately scratting round looking for work, and he is now working as a cleaner and is happy to (he's a mechanic ffs)

We are permanently skint and are well versed in the ways of skintness, however working as a cleaner is better than no work at all.

[amber1979]

Exactly Riven, something that many forget.