Anyone watching 'Kelly and her sisters grow up'

[OddBoots]

I don't remember the original doc but it looks interesting.

That was in reference to 'Made in Chelsea' - a programme that makes me want to scoop my eyes out with rusty spoons.

Never seen M in C but the previews for TOWIE makes me want to eat my own spleen.
Can I borrow your rusty spoon to remove it?

I really liked the girls - and feel sad that Kelly isn't exploiting her potential as she's really bright.

Can't help feeling the rather selfish and permenantly depressed mother has held them back.

I didn't feel the show did a lot to dispel the sterotypical 'living the life of riley on benefits' image. Family had the sort of home that most working people would give their eye teeth for.

They seemed to be forever boozing, smoking and partying and i counted 3 dogs and 2 cats - how much do they cost to feed a month?

The mum also seemed to have a horrible sense of entitlement - everything was somebody else's problem to sort out. No personal responsibility.

I don't want the poor to live in sackcloth and I'm not terribly sympathetic to people who moan about not having enough benefits when most of it goes on: tobacco, booze and dog food

what an igorant thing to say nancy she is depressed!

does depression automatically make you selfish and irresponsible?

My mum suffered a lot of the problems Max did, it was my dad's strength that kept our home life from being similar. There were 2 men with parental responsibility for that family but there was little evidence of it in the film (although we don't know how it was edited).

Depression can be absolutely crushing.

Nobody should have to live in a house like the one Kelly grew up in. However, just because you have six kids doesn't give you a right to a bigger house. If you have a mortgage you don't have this "right" unless you can afford to buy a bigger house. Their entitlement is only that of a decent house, as would be the case if it was a family of two kids (or no kids at all).

When they got their five bedroom house hadn't some of the kids left home? Why did they need a five bedroom house?

Can't help but think why on earth do you have two dogs when you're short of money. Makes no sense to me.

The kids turned out well though and I wish them luck.

Hmmm,

I'm going to get blasted for this but it makes my skin crawl when I see very deprived families choosing to have massive families when they know they can't afford too.
Those kids had no quality of life I wondered if maybe she had stopped at like 3 It would have been better.

And those children grow up feeling like burdens.

Dogs cost a lot of money to feed so I don't understand how they can afford to keep them.

It was Christmas and they were chuffed to bit to be knocking back Lambrini which is about £2 a bottle. Hardly living it up.

it was filmed over a period of a couple of months - it wasn't Christmas every day.

I only caught the second half of the documentary, very interesting. I felt sorry for Kelly, working but struggling along. I think if I was her I would sod off to Australia and do a backpacking stint. So young to be living like that.

No, but the scene in which they were getting booze was. They were also treated to some food from a catalogue by the grandma. Again hardly living it up.

Are any of us genuinely saying that we would trade places with her so that we could have two dogs and a bottle of paint stripper wine?

I am not saying for one minute that she has made wise choices, she hasn't - but people with mental illness may not be in a frame of mind to make the best judgements based on reason rather than emotion. The mother clearly felt a need to fill an emotional hole in her life with children, men and animals.

I suspect that if she had been forced out to work she may have struggled even more with her children and that perhaps the bill to the state would have been even higher and the long term implications more serious.

I could not have raised those girls in that environment, she is a stronger woman than me.

I didn't see the origional either, but I got the impression that the older girls (from that I mean the ones who had left home) had a lot more drive and ambition than the younger ones, who gave the impression of having it quite easy. I say this as I suppose they have the older sisters to carry the burden of their mother's health problems. The only reason I thought this was because the youngest seemed very unimpressed with her christmas presents (made a comment about them not being 'real') and generally didn't seem as grounded as the older girls.
I felt very sorry for the cycle that Kelly had got into - it's so sad she felt alone at that time and I hope her and her sister get their qualifications and get a better life for themselves.

i wouldn't trade places with her for her dogs and wine.

but i wouldn't have had 6 children either.

So if she has 3 children living at home, how long will she be able to stay in that big house? Honest question- will she b forced to downscale to make room for another large family? How do these things work?

I should be clear- I'm not saying that she should have to leave. I think it would be devastating for her. At the same time however there must b other large families in need of that house.

Some of the posts on here make my skin crawl

I vaguely remember the original programme, it was the girls bed made from a door that twigged with me.

But the mould/mildew and the gross fungus on the walls.

FFS - could she/someone/ex Hubby/currant hubby have got some rubber gloves and hot water and wiped the walls with bleach. Then paint with Size (antimould paint, it smells like socks but it works) then a coat of basic white emulsion.
Imagine what those girls were breathing in?
Imagine what their clothes smelled like?

I hope I'm not the one making anyone's skin crawl... I honestly don't know how council housing works?
I mean- could max live in that house til she's an old lady after all her kids have left? Is it her house now and that's that? If so great for her as far as I'm concerned.
I do still wonder about other families who are in the situation Kelly et al started out in. There can't b an unlimited number of houses for them to live in so where would they get housed?

The government is trying to change the law in relation to tenancy agreements and social housing so that the tenancy isn't for life anymore. I agree that it is hard for people to leave the family home once the children have gone and the tenant is rattling round a large house, however there isn't a limitless supply of large social housing and there is pressure to house large families so something needs to be done