Single mothers are better mothers says Lowri Turner

[jasper]

Anyone read this recent piece? Not sure where it is published but it was referred to on The Wright Stuff this morning.
Apparently LT is claiming women raising kids alone do it better then those who have the interference of a man!
I'd love to know the substance of what she wrote.
I searched online without success.

If that is what she is saying it sounds like sour grapes to me...

But I thought that Lowri Turner is happily married with 2 kids ? Have her and her DH split then ?

Oh couldn't agree more

I read her article in Real magazine yesterday. Didn't think it was a particularly good article, but I don't think she said that single mothers were better parents. The way I read and understood it she was saying that single mothers had to work that much harder at being a better parent. Partly, I guess, because of the stigma attached to single mums.

Yeah WSM - She chucked him out whilst pg with No 2.

I find her an incredibly strange woman.

BUT, oh fellow mumsnetters...

....she could be any one of us.... so lets be careful.

More competent, perhaps, because you have to be more competent if you're doing it on your own, so in that sense, they might be 'better'.

But the "interference of a man"? really - how neanderthal - let's try removing me from my sons life and see how he likes it, eh? He's upset enough if I'm away for a night! How would my wife feel if she suddenly had to cope on her own (and give up her business to do it).

Sometimes I feel like giving up!

Aw Tom - don't give up!

I heard LT chucked out her hubby when pregnant with no 2 son as she was jeallous of relationship he had with no 1 son as he was main carer. He was older than her and sort of retired to let her develop her career. She is extremely opinionated and short and dumpy imho and won't find another man so will have to work harder to be a good parent. As for single being better, well, that's generalising. There are good and bad parents and it has nothing to do with being single or not. I have total admiration and respect for single parents and tell my single friends, who say they will just have kids on their own, that it will be HARD WORK.

As a sort of single mother with a full time job and a three-hour commute, but a great nanny, for the past four months, I think it's s*dding exhausting and I would never choose it. I've been more tired, more grumpy, prone to mood swings etc which my daughters have had to suffer. They don't get one on one experience very often and definitely miss their father living with them. Logistically and emotionally it's very hard, for me, but that WILL get better. Also, I didn't make the choice to be on my own so maybe it's different if you do. On the upside I, personally, have developed a more intense bond with them and notice tiny developments in greater detail than before. Firefly?? Bugsy??

Queenie - I was interested in your post until you said LT was "short and dumpy...and won't find another man" - that's a bit of an irrelevant and unnecessary comment surely? I don't think her physical stature should have anything to do with a discussion about someone's opinions on parenting - even if they are slightly spurious. Leave the personal insults out next time? - cheers...

Bobsmum, chill out. imo if you're in the public eye and have as many opinions as her you're fair play for insults. I have nothing against short and dumpy people per se but if she thinks men are irrelevant to a childs life then she leaves herself open to insults. Anyway, why do you care??

Apparently she's been sacked from her tv show too. Never mind - she'll have more time for the kids - mwahahaa.

This is such a silly issue - all children have 2 parents, even if they're dead, they are memories, and out of respect to children, I think we should be respectful of their parents, no matter what has happened in the relationship.

Bobsmum, chill out. imo if you're in the public eye and have as many opinions as her you're fair play for insults. I have nothing against short and dumpy people per se but if she thinks men are irrelevant to a childs life then she leaves herself open to insults. Anyway, why do you care??

As I said before I think LT's opinions are spurious at best. I still don't think what she looks like has anything to do with this discussion, that's all.

Of course she's outspoken and does not come across as a particularly demure and retiring person. I wouldn't choose to have a coffee with her! I care because I think it's possible to have a reasoned debate about an issue without resorting to petty insults about someone's appearance. Nothing more sinister than that.

Bobsmum, we live in a society where appearance matters whether we like it or not. Personal insults abound in the media - LT's world. She can take it I'm sure as she gives it out enough. I agree personal insults are petty but I find her loathesome and would not like her in real life. There again in real life not this virtual one I wouldn't insult her personally but I would think it. We both agree she is not a "nice" person and that she has odd views. Let's leave it there and I'll try not to be too petty in the future - but I do love jab at celebs. Sorry if I offended anyone - I'm quite short and dumpy as well you know!!

I'm staying out of the short and dumpy debate!

Well what can I say about LT's remarks apart from what a load of 'ballcocks'.

There are great mums, there are average mums and there are crap mums and I'm sure it bears little relationship to marital status.

Why is this? Because she has split up with her husband.
Utter bollox IMO.
Agree with lilysmum

I thought the stuff she said in Hello about her ex was pure poison. He toned down his career to look after their son while she worked on TV shows, then suddenly she's vitriolic about his not earning loads of money, snatches his children away from him out of spite, and gives them to her brother to look after. Very, very nasty. I think single parents can have a really hard time. But I have little sympathy for someone who deliberately makes herself one, earns a packet and cuts her children's father out of their life to a huge extent. She may have fallen out of love with him, but the stuff she's said since just seems vindictive.

Here here aloha

My brother knows her brother - wonder if it's the same one? (Maybe I should have posted this in the "claim to fame" thread)

I actually read the feature yesterday and thought she came over as extremely hard. She talked about leaving her husband, and said 'It's a market economy women can choose and men have to make themselves attractive to us'...yeah, but what about the children?? I don't think it washes using phrases like 'market economy' when you are talking about depriving children of their father and vice versa. Children aren't women's property.

I would just like to say that I am short, a hell of a lot fatter than Lowri Turner, and despite a fairly chequered history have not exactly run short of blokes.

Wanted to get that off my F-cup chest...

aloha, ikwym, haven't read this particular article but have heard her before being interviewed and she is very hard on the subject of her marriage - a lot of bitterness in the break-up obviously. sad. as you say, children involved. my parents divorced when i was 21 - rather a relief after years of rows tbh. they were both absolutely excellent though in terms of never trying to get us to take sides, behaved with enormous dignity and were generally exemplars of how parents should behave...

I hate the anti-men cr*p that she talks. I am trying my best to raise sons, as is she. How can I success when at ever turn there are people like this saying just because they are men they are this and that. Basically worthless.

She must feel very insecure to have such a viewpoint. As for the whole single mother thing. My best-friend is a single mother, also of two boys, a few years older than mine. Her then fiance walked out after the birth of number two 8 years ago, saying he couldn't cope. Since then she has devoted herself to bringing up her boys and getting them out of a bad area. All of which she has succeeded brilliantly. As she said to me after the Wright Stuff/Real mag article.

"Just because you can doesn't mean you should."

Wise words from the wise one!