SOC reveals he's a quitter whilst Keri sews up plot holes on Twitter about the wicked wife-sitter! Discuss the Archers here.

[PseudoBadger]

Not long until our thread's 3 year birthday!

Thanks ColdTea. Thinking about I am not sorry I went through it just very glad I don't have to anymore. And I have to say I was always believed without question (often before I said it myself) on MN

And when I did crack I phoned my works coounselling service. All I said was 'he wasn't very nice to me" and that was all I had to say. There is help. I think the hardest person to convince is often yourself...hence when Helen was really not ready for what Kirsty had to say.

(My friends were also fab)

So in short Helen needs MN.
Or Kirsty should sneak her a copy of Lundy Bancroft. How fab would that be?!!

I know what you mean, Bitoutofpractice, but surely any normal mother would be utterly distraught if she was estranged from her children. It would colour her life and preoccupy her more than yurts et al. So, to that extent, we would be aware of it.

But Kate has never been normal. She is what my nan would call a little madam.

Hell will eventually realise what's happening to her IMO she knows exactly what's happening to her but is not yet ready to admit it to herself. it would be too traumatic all round.

Did anyone notice her intake of breath when knob arrived at Tom's party?

to Topofthecliff too, just far too many real life Robs out there.

I think Helens head is all over the place. The exhaustion due to all the stress and so many mixed messages from Rob. Her self confidence has been completely eroded, even insisting it must of been her bad memory and not Ursula at fault.
She definitely needs MN! Although in her current state of mind it would probably read like one of those frustrating threads where everyone points out the obvious and the OP ignores it and insists DH can change.

I think Helens mind is probably far, far away from the fall out with Ian now, she has even greater stresses in her life. I do hope they tie up that loose end though.

In fact how many loose end storylines do we have now? must be a building up a good collection I would think!

Yes Kate is far from normal, there isn't really a maternal bone in her body. Any interaction with any of her children always comes across as a token gesture to prove she cares and no one buys it.

Phew caught up! Thanks to all for the thread - I haven't listened to a single episode over the last fortnight in some kind of one woman protest against the current SL (though it seems I'm not the only one). Have to admit though I'm missing my daily (sometimes twice daily) fix!

I know what you mean - I was so freaked out by Rob's conversations with Henry that I had to stop listening for a while ("no one likes a noisy boy" etc.) but I did have to listen to Tom's birthday. I love how Tom talks back to Rob - suspect he's starting to imagine him as an ingredient in the Scotch eggs.
I am pinning my hopes on Kirsty and Tom.

If Helen posted on Relationships here, her posts would be littered with the phrase 'DH is a brilliant dad'. That always makes me so sad. The OP describes appallingly selfish, often outright cruel behaviour from her partner towards to her, and that's the model of family life her children are absorbing as they grow up. So by definition, not a brilliant dad, as he is an appalling role model for the children.

It's one of the things that annoy me about TA - no-one ever googles anything or belongs to any online forums, so the SW can get away with people thinking and saying rubbish things and not being challenged. Lazy. Hellin would almost certainly be on MN, as a good middle class, middle England, educated woman.

IRL, I know educated middle England educated women who sneer at MN for being full of kneejerk neurotic ignorance.

Well IIjkk It would be a funny old world if we were all liked the same media, eh ?

But kneejerk neurotic ignorance is what I come to MN for!

I am generally finding the Brookfield cow storyline quite interesting, particularly as I often listening while dealing with our own spring calving herd. As the cows came off the lorry they could have been describing our cows, a brown one, a ginger one, a spotty one and a black one. I was puzzled when Rex described them as having longer legs than the old cows though, unless I misheard. The new cows should be smaller and stockier than the old ones. The other glaring mistake was David expressing apprehension about all the cows calving at once. Has he forgotten that the previous herd was autumn block calving and they all calved at once???

dairyfarmerswife Wouldn't it make more sense to stagger the calving? Or not

I'm trying not to show "knee-jerk ignorance"

dfw is it not that they now have more cows than they used to? (So more cows all calving at once)

The CA just made me laugh How do you spell denial ?

Yes I heard that too I often say to my very forgetful DM that's she's in the that huge river in Egypt.

DE NILE geddit !!

Go Kirsty!!! She's planted a seed with hellin. Surely Kirsty will have to tell someone about how knob has treated her?

Kirsty said she's working a few shifts at the tea room so I wonder if Rob will try to get her sacked/banned, or be overheard saying something threatening to her.

dfw: could David be apprehensive because he doesn't know these cows individually? When you know your own herd you know which ones calve easily & which ones don't without having to look at their records. So a lot of unfamiliar cows all calving at once is more daunting than familiar cows all calving at once... (?)

Oh - Lillian and Toby are so funny together.

And a BOOP for Bert.

I just can't listen to the Archers at the moment, I find it actually upsetting. What's happening to Helen is awful! Can Radio 4 please produce an edition sans the domestic abuse storyline?