Troubled families have too many children ?

[BridgetJonesPants]

AIBU to agree with this article written by Louise Casey, the Prime Minister's troubled families tsar?

uk.news.yahoo.com/troubled-families-too-many-children-022219547.html

Although I have no idea how you can get 'these mothers' who have probably had a chaotic upbringing themselves to take responsibility for not having any more children.

Link not working for me

Is it 'large family' bashing?

i agree with you and the article but i'm sure you'l sure most mn's will think you are BU

She's a brave woman to say this to the media. It suppose it is about breaking the cycle and education but how this can be done I wouldn't like to say.
I do agree with her comments, we thought long and hard about affording one child, then we got no choice. By affording, I mean emotionally as well as financially.

She has a point. But she isn't generalising, she's being quite specific about certain families

She told the Daily Telegraph: "There are plenty of people who have large families and function incredibly well, and good luck to them, it must be lovely. The issue for me, out of the families that I have met, they are not functioning, lovely families.
"One of the families I interviewed had six social care teams attached to them: nine children, [and a] tenth on the way. Something has to give here really.?

There are 120,000 so-called "problem families" in Britain, whose lives the Government hopes to turn around.

They cost the taxpayer an estimated £9bn in benefits, crime, anit-social behaviour and health care, and one fifth of them have more than five children.
Miss Casey warns that the state must start telling mothers with large families to take ?responsibility? and stop getting pregnant, often with different, abusive men.
"The responsibility is as important as coming off drugs, coming off alcohol, getting a grip and getting the kids to school," she said.
?So for some of those women the job isn?t to go and find yourself another violent, awful bloke who you will bring a child into the world with, to start the cycle all over again.?

Gulp

Good luck with this one OP!

Olympia, it's also front page of The Telegraph. Not large family bashing, she actually makes a direct comment about this:

?There are plenty of people who have large families and function incredibly well, and good luck to them, it must be lovely,? she said. ?The issue for me, out of the families that I have met, [is that] they are not functioning, lovely families.

That's barely 'an article'.

But I agree with the sentiment too. People who continue to have children that they cannot support when they already have others that they can't bring up properly, or without full financial assistance from the taxpayer are incredibly irresponsible and selfish. But you can't stop them doing it, because if we did then we would no longer have freedom. I would rather the country held onto its moral values.

The only thing that can be done is to stop paying benefits for three or more children.

Benefits?

What's that got to do with it?

Maybe these people are stuck in a cycle of where their only income is benefits?

hello
We have moved this to our news topic
Thanks
MNHQ

I think people will see this as benefit bashing and large family bashing, but it is neither. Ime it really is a problem. I know a few families like this. They have chaotic lives, the children don't make it to school and when they do they have rarely had breakfast and are not properly dressed. The older children try to take care of the younger ones at the expense of their own lives and the babies keep coming. I am not generalising here. I an talking about 3 specific families. If there are three such families where I work there must be more and I think they do need support and encouragement to stop having children they can't take adequate care of. I am sorry if that offends anyone.

 Single mothers will have up to £3,000 deducted from child support to cover the cost of chasing their former partners. Ministers expect up to 300,000 single parents to stop pursuing their ex-partners for cash when the new Child Maintenance Service starts charging fees next year.

So what the he'll is this ^ bit??

*hell

Wow, Olympia. I hadn't read that. That's terrible.

But that isn't addressing the issue that there is an element of society that is in a generation-to-generation habitual cycle. Often poorly educated, non achievers. Often with no father figure. Mother who habitually has 'boyfriends', often not long term. Careless contraception. Several children with several fathers, often none of whom remain in the childrens lives.

Again you get men the same, several children with several mothers and taking no interest in any of them.

It comes down to dilution of family life. Men have been marginalised for the past 60 years; there is quite a left wing belief that women can bring up families on their own, have an entitlement to a baby to fulfil their (the mothers) emotional needs.

These children then go on to repeat the cycle.

The question is: how do we (we as in society) make that cycle break?

Education is obviously the key, but how do you educate someone from a disaffected and dysfunctional family background where attendance to school is not given any credence?

We all know at least one family like this. On the other hand we all probably know 10 families where the mother is doing a marvellous job of holding it all together too.

However it is that 120,000 families that are a massive drain on the country and quite probably in their local community too. If that amount of money is being spent by councils on social workers and support agencies, then the impact is on everyones council tax. Money has to come from somewhere, and it will be from what could be the education budget.

9bn is a hell of a lot of money to spend on 120,000

Well it's part if this wonderful article and it's a solution?

It comes down to more than stopping them having kids (unless we're going to start forced sterilisation).

A lot of these women have been raised in chaotic, uncaring families themselves. They have no sense of self worth or achievement other than as a mother.

Pregnancy and childbirth brings attention, a sense of being cared for (midwifes, medical people). They get a sense if having achieved something. After a year or so it's just another kid.

I personally know two women like this. They love the finding out they are pregnant bit. They love being pregnant and the build up etc. they then also lose interest after a while. A year down the line they're pregnant again.

These women have no education, have never worked. They haven't done or achieved anything to feel good about. Apart from the kids. It's a hard life, there's little money, crappy living conditions and they are single mothers with little support and end up resenting the children.

There's also the factor of their unhealthy relationships. They crave attention from men, a feeling of being cared about. The men ate generally unsuitable (there's no screening process here, just being grateful that someone cares for them. The relationship breaks down and then on to the next man who 'cares' and then another pregnancy.

I have no idea of the way out. These women need help to sort themselves out. To give themselves a sense of self esteem that they are more than baby making machines.

'Mothers from problem families should feel "ashamed" of how they are damaging society and should stop getting pregnant'

Cos they get pregnant all by themselves don't they

Jumping, no, we don't allow know families like this.

And look what will happen if any of these mothers dare chase up child support......

Sorry but woman is an idiot (Casey). If she thinks "shaming" those women into not having more kids will work, what a Moron (and what about the fathers, why not shame them into getting the Snip, too??). Targeting the children in those families to boost their self-esteem & given them excellent contraception advice from a young age would be far wiser, better chance of breaking the cycle.

I know a few women with large broods they can't look after properly (many taken away, or on at-risk register). They need support not criticism to make better future life choices and help their living children now. And personally I'd like payment to see one of them get sterilised, but I guess that's even more controversial!

Personal responsibility anybody?
I know i will be flamed for that.

AllDirections, quite right.
A total lack of any male responsibility about this.
And how can it be justified that women 'stop pursuing partners for maintainance'?
That is not going to stop the men putting it about is it, just penalise the women even more...

This is very depressing blame culture.

I posted the above having not read the article, by the way. The link doesn't work on my phone. If it was advocating a punishment or shaming 'solution' then I completely disagree. I think it is a problem that needs tackling, but agree with all of the posters above about the sort of self esteem building and support to break the cycle.