£100000 a year but too poor to be able to afford a third child

[emkana]

I might be mad to get into this again, after that money thread I started the other week, but I just feel like I'm on a completely different planet again, after reading this article. It raises some good points comparing Britain and France, but the first example used is just ludicrous IMO.

article here

I was confused about the childcare when she's not working...

As someone else posted, they don't really, really want another child, it's just an idle dream, like my dreams of what I'd buy if I won the lottery.

Frogs
You give them a kickin' whilst I pinch their wallets and purses, then we'll head off to Harvey Nick's for a spot of lunch and perhaps a visit to the Chanel counter .

Mind you, the real cost of having a third child is that it would probably become almost impossible to work at all, and that would cost them half their income immediately.
I used to earn a reasonable amount as a freelance journalist but since having dd my income has absolutely plummetted because I'm looking after her. And I have debts from taking 'maternity leave' on a poxy £100 a week.

I couldn't give a witches tit about how much they earn and whether or not they can 'afford' to raise another child in the manner they have chosen to raise their current 2, but I do fail to see what this couple hoped to gain from doing this interview/article. It seems to just invite critiscm and animosity towards them.

Is it expected that you will be continually progressively better off as time passes?

I thought that peaks and troughs in income and outgoings would be considered a normal pay off for bringing up a family..

Makes me laugh how people like this are presented in a national newspaper as being representative of the population as a whole.

Does anyone actually know anyone like this? They sound like the kind of characters you'd find on Little Britain to me. Certainly not tripping over such folks up here in the North West....

Yes, but to lose half your family income overnight can make life quite difficult.

Of course they are hardly representative and I think it is a bit of a shame that they are presented as such.

I think its OK for David and Claire to moan to each other, but not to the press!

Someone I spoke to yesterday said they're complaining because having a third child would involve them going down a class - she argued that it's not unreasonable for them to expect to stay in the social class they're in, given that three children is not a luxury.

What do people think of that argument?

It is the Sunday Times and they are probably representative or even quite poor within their social circle, that is what I meant earlier total lack of awareness that they are in a high income bracket is IMO their "offence" not earning the money

"Between them they earn well over £100,000 a year"

To be honest, this couple must be earning significantly more than £100k pa, I don't imagine that £100k goes very far when you are paying a West London mortgage and London private school fees for 2. As someone further down the thread said, a joint income of £100k in London is really not that astonishingly high. I'm not so sure why this couple should be quite so heavily lambasted.

NDP - It might not be astonishingly high to you as your DH has a high income! But its astonishingly high to those of us who live on MUCH less and could never contemplate that size of income. IYSWIM

I mean in London terms, £100k is not particularly high. I am aware that it is considered to be large outside of the South East.

Fair enough Lockets, it may not be the norm but it's not unusual, surely ?

Caligula, I would say that no, a third child isn't a luxury, but private education, their house (I assume) their way of life and their holidays almost certainly are luxuries.

NdP it is way way way above the national average.

They are lambasted for their inability to know they are high earners by British standards (by me at least) not for their earning capacity

Anywhoo, I should bog off as I have no real concept of what I am/should be discussing. Giving myself an enormous parp...

Agree that social class is a state of mind as well as income.

And this poor couple seem trapped in their state of mind.

(Cue violins)

Maybe they need a holiday in StLucia to help them re-evaluate.