Growing up poor - boys

[JazzAnnNonMouse]

I wonder how it'll be different for them compared to the girls?
On Bbc 3 now.

Just caught up on iplayer. They all seem such lovely boys. My heart goes out to all 3 of them. I really hope that Wes gets some sort of coaching/teaching job. I know he has had a kid at such a young age but he so wants to be there for his son unlike his own father. And he'd be such a brilliant role model for other lads in his position who don't have anything to do with their babies beyond making them in the first place. I could see him in some sort of youth/community work. He'd be someone kids would listen to.

Totally agree with Frankie's accent. I think a lot of white boys think it's cool to speak like the black boys. I want to laugh when white kids talk with this cod Jamaican twang. I don't think they sound cool,I think they sound daft. All 3 really deserve jobs and it's so sad that their potential is being wasted.

"All 3 really deserve jobs and it's so sad that their potential is being wasted." I agree and the sad thing is that there are many more young folk in the exact same position.

Nancy I've never heard such a weird thing as what you just said! I am a south east Londoner and I will tell you that most people around here no matter what skin colour, have a natural patois/cockney accent !! It is the area! I have it myself to some degree having lived here the last four years! It's not an 'affectation' it's a pick up on the different cultures and nationalities around you. I agree that Frankie would have a better chance at a job with a clearer accent, that I won't argue with. May I ask what part of London you're from?

see i knew someone would have a dig about my post.

i cant stress enough how much i am not of the "quit smoking and sell your goat" type. i really dont but into the "they have flatscreen tvs and sky and blackberrys" but for that particular boy it felt 'put on' for the camera. not the biy wesly, but his friend that was asking him for money to get electric and feed the baby. it just seemed like he was acting up. but that's just my own take on it. i'm sure you'll make your own mind up.

Waynettea - yes, I know people talk like that. I hear it all the time.
I'm currently in SW London.

But I spent a lot of time in Lewisham as a child which was , then, as multi-cultural as it is now and no white kids spoke like that.

If it was a naturally occuring accent then why does it only 'naturally occur' between the ages of around 9 and 20?

Blondes - yes, Rotherham is an absolute shit hole. i had to go there about a year ago for work and it felt like I was on the set of some zombie movie.

Nancy I don't know why it occurs between those ages but I know that the accent has has most likely got stronger in recent years. Lewisham is more Black than white now though, as is becoming the norm in SE London . It's a natural habit and actually some white kids sometimes have the strongest accents.

We'll have to disagree on that one....do you think the old 'pimp roll' swagger is naturally occuring as well?

Lmao I'll have to agree with you on that one...

I think kids pick up styles of speaking from all sorts of places - their mates, tv progs (since all the US and Australian programmes have come over here, we have a whole generation whose every sentence sounds like a question).

None of the black kids at my school spoke with a Jamaican accent back in the 70's but I think now there is more respect for different cultures, blacks today are no longer worried about speaking in patois or trying to disguise their accents. And white kids start copying them coz they sound cool innit and because they don't have a strong sense of identity with their own heritage maybe or their own doesn't have any unique language/dress etc.

I find it v annoying to hear kids talking like that though (they do it here in West Yorkshire too so its not just a Southern phenomenon) but in a way I'm optimisitic about it because it shows that black culture is now more accepted in the UK.

There was a period in the 90s when Oasis were huge and the whole 'Madchester' scene was big - when kids in London were talking with broad Manchester accents

I watched both programmes on catch-up.
I thought it very but I was at the attitude of the couple with the baby.
The dad (Wesley) said his dad had no contact with him.
But the next generation, she tells him "You're going to be a dad" . Then she complains how hard it is.

FFS does no-one take responsibility. You don't just wake up pregnant like you wake up with a huge spot. It is preventable.

And at the end "Wesley still sees his son" so they aren't together.
Even though he said he didn't want history to repeat itself.

Old fogey emoticon.

I know 70, I always think the same. Do they really need to actually have a baby in order to understand that raising a child by yourself on no money might be hard?

I thought Wesley was just another waster. A father and he's hanging around on street corners "rapping" with his mates in the middle of the day.

Poor babies born into such hopelessness.

Well history isn't repeating itself 70's. Wesley said he never saw his dad, he sees his child. Regardless of whether the parents are together or not Wesley sees his child ergo history is not repeating itself.

They should revisit in a year or two and see how everyone is ?

I think Craig's mother was abdicating responsibility for Craig. Just because your child reaches 18 it doesn't mean you can just chuck them out with no support at all (including and especially emotional support).

I thought his story was heartbreaking.

What kind of parent is that?

I wondered where Craig's mum went (with her toddler) and how she found the money to decorate

Least wes sees his son tho why the hell these teenagers don't learn from
Their parents and use contraception - I'm sure most of the pregnant girls didnt fall preg through a spilt condom / missed pill - more like they didnt use anything

Back in the mid 90s I worked in a Health Centre . Many times I was witness to pairs of girls, asking the Reception for the Morning After Pill.
Laughing like it was a huge joke.

And sadly, a lot of them were regular visitors .

And it just says Wesley still sees his son.

How much contact?
Where?

Does elaborate.

Agree with puff pants and 70.

Would be great to do a revisit and hopefully all are doing better for theirselves - tho sadly this prob wont happen

I watched this too after watching the girls one the week before.

I thought Frankie (despite the accent - I'm also a Londoner who does not speak like that!) was a star, doing voluntary work for his CV, walking the streets looking for work, doing a college course that he enjoys and has prospects and not thinking he couldn't make it to university. I really wanted him to succeed.

Wesley, while a nice enough lad, I felt was waiting for a job to land in his lap. His routine was seeing his baby in the morning and rapping on street corners with his mates in the afternoon. At what point was he walking the streets trying to get a job? I accept this may be editing on the programmes part but suspect not.

Craig was a bit of a dilemma for me. At first I felt sorry for him but then I got a bit upset at his attitude to his mum - blaming her for them losing the house. She had lost her job and was pregnant so couldn't afford the mortgage. If he had signed on he may have been able to contribute towards the household bills and maybe keep their home. I know he wanted to do his kickboxing course but a home is more important. He also could have volunteered to help decorate the house to save them some money - instead of punching holes in walls!

Having grown up poor myself, I found the programmes heartbreaking and frustrating at the same time. I'm lucky enough to have escaped that trap but felt scared watching those kids, scared for their future and thinking that at any flip of a coin it could be my family back in that situation.

I quite liked Wes's ex girlfriend buying stuff from the market etc, she seemed to have a good head on her shoulders

I liked all of the Lads actually, I'm a few streets away from Craig, it is indeed a poor area ole' Rotherham, it had to highest teen pregnancy rate in Europe for 10 years and that's how long it took Hackney to catch up!!. I live next to and across from drug dealers and everybody else smokes weed until you can smell it in your house, And this is a 'nice area'.
we are the only family here who doesn't. However, on meeting these people you'd think they were anyone else, Rotherhamites aren't the 'wahey look at me I'm taking drugs' type because its just so normal, .

That Girl from Rotherham made me livid played up to every chav , scrubber stereotype going, she lived in Ferham though a v. rough area.

About the teen pregnancy thing, as a teen mother myself the assumption of extensive sex ed is often inaccurate, what that meant in my generation was they showed you how to put a condom on and a few feeble 'Don't do it till you're ready's' will do the trick, I got caught on the pill, [said] because I came from a very strict family and got ill and didn't realise it wouldn't work, and I was over the age of 18 so I hadn't done anything wrong etc. So just addressing the point that is so often missed in these discussions.

I didn't expect to like the boys more than the girls though.

The one I thought showed the most get up and go was Wes's mate "Chink' who was a real friend to him supporting him pratically and emotionally, he seemed a very thoughtful lad who had trained as a mechanic but couldn't find a job but did a paper round to earn £20 something which Bridie in the first programme wouldn't even contemplate when it was suggested to her

Yes I liked 'chink' - I thought he was Craig's mate though?

I wonder if Craig is now in the army? I hope as its what he wanted and will provide security and discipline that he is but I also hope that because of the terrible things he's likely to witness or be a part of, the risk to his health and potential death that he's not. Tricky.

Wes did seem as though he expected a good job to be waiting for him but he seemed less into the street corner scene than his other friend with a baby.
I hope he now has a job or is in training to be a coach of some sort .

I really hope the other boy completes his goal and attends uni or gets a job and perhaps attends courses or open uni.
I hope he finds his feet and doesn't get knocked back and give up.