Rich house poor house wed ch5 9pm

[Blondeshavemorefun]

Two families swap lives for a week. Total opposites in the life styles

the richest 10% and a family who live on the breadline

Okay started it.... first one where none of the 4 parents is fat. A first I think no doubt due to the healthy eating from Morocco cooked by the husband. So she drove a bus and he did nothing at all.

I think we are still short of bus drivers. Can't she just get back to that whilst he also does night shifts too?

Keep updating, Xenia. Going to love reading your review on this episode.

I don't agree that if she does this business management degree she will earn a lot more than a bus driver. I think they should both get £20k a year jobs and the family will be able to manage that. Surprised they thought they could afford their 3rd child but they must have done.

Poor family were lovely, my dd admired them (she's 13)

Rich family - did not like him one bit. He seemed to have a 'side' to him. She was nice but not advert for her work.
Better in that the women were the breadwinners on both sides.

I liked that things were picking up for the poor family in the end credits and wish them well.

They are eating out which they never do and it's junk stuff - ugh - pizza £76 and they had their first take away £50 fish and chips. yet their original healthy food we saw from Morocco is so very much better for them.

And same lesson as every single episode - get the highest qualifications you possibly can - doctor this week, barrister last week etc etc and put off your children until you are a bit older than some of the less well off families. Early chastity and very a hard work at school and university often pays off it seems.

... unusual background that you marry a porfessional footballer and end up in a life in poverty in the UK in a council house. Might they have been a lot better off in his home country on the basis his pay there may be better than his wife being a UK bus driver.

Agree, Xenia, although it helps if you have financial backing behind you at the outset.

The problem with this programme, is that they don't look at your capital. Income is only part of the story.

It's interesting that the less well off man seems to be handing out presents like some kind of rich potentate all providing man when his wife is the main wage earner and she as much as he could have used the spare money to buy herself a lap top or football play station or whatever for the boys but they have to maintain that fiction of man as provider even when it is clearly not so. He is not the best father in the world. Why does his son think the present was from the father rather than the mother (and in reality from the programme makers)? nice families though on both sides.

Still trying to work out if the working class made good lady doctor's 4 children go to state schools.

Very nice. Watched it all. The man has got a night shift job and the woman has a part time job lined up - whatever that means - may not be that she actually has it. I am not sure this university course is worth bothering with. I think she should stick with the buses. it's regular solid work.

I agree Xenia
I think that she should stick to being a bus driver.
Lovely couple though

She got sacked from being a bus driver so maybe can't just go back

Early chastity no, good contraception / possibly willing to have an abortion / possibly poor fertility. There's nothing to suggest that the rich families simply don't have sex until they're married

I graduated in law a teetotal virgin aged 20 with law prizes....... so not surprisingly I didn't have a baby by then.... I accept that is not for everyone; but more seriously the better off couples get an education and wait to have children (as indeed are more and more people in the UK - our teenage pregnancy rate in the UK has absolutely plummeted in the last few years - the hidden benefit of the smart phone and a good book in the old days - they don't get you pregnant)

But you didn't do well at Uni specifically because you were a virgin. You can't know what would have happened if you'd have had sex for the first time at 14 or 17 or 30.
All whilst I agree there's a general tend in more financially successful having children on average later on, that isn't the same as chastity. I didn't have my son until I was 33, it has no bearing on what age I lost my virginity

Okay it was slightly tongue in cheek but it does reduce pregnancy risk and gives you more time for your studies because you're not thinking about a boy. I doubt I will be setting a new virginity trend (although may be the mobile phone on line world is already achieving that to an extent).

Fairly certain the teenagers are still having sex, now they can simply sext as well. I'd think it would actually make hook ups more likely than less likely in this digital age but that contraception is simply more accessible

Of all the episodes so far, I think this rich family came out looking the worst. Aside from the fact that the doctor had ruined her face with too much plastic surgery/whatever, they did come across as very sneering, especially the dad and the boys. The mum just seemed horrified to be there at all.
The Moroccan family came across better (I especially thought the 2 older boys came across well) but I did think that if the dad had perhaps done a bit more than just staying at home to cook the food they would have been in a better position. They are luckily in council housing so their rent will be nowhere near what they would have to cover if it were a private rent.

hmmm, I agree. I suspect the Moroccan man is fairly bright and is bringing up the children very well which will help although it is always a bit unfair on the families as probably a fair bit of it is staged and other things they say are probably left out so who really knows what is a balanced picture.

I know in general the education/jobs first, babies later means being better off but it isn't always true. I've got a friend the same age as me who moved in with her boyfriend at 16 then married and had kids early. She has ok GCSEs but nothing else and her DH was an apprentice electrician. They're now early 40s, kids leaving school and very well off, cutting hours and having multiple holidays abroad. We've got 4 degrees and 2 masters between us, kids still at primary and I'm always in my overdraft even though we live fairly frugally!

I've seen a couple of the recent episodes and tend to agree with what Xenia says about having kids young. Very few of the people I was at Uni with and are now earning decent salaries and having a good lifestyle were parents before about the age of 28. Most were into their 30s. If you have children in your late teens and have to defer your education then it's always going to be a LOT harder to get back into it. I disagree though about the virginity - I was living my DH at Uni, didn't have our first child until I was almost 31. Contraception works - if you are fastidious about it and don't take risks.

The other factor appeared to be willingness to move, especially with the Hartlepool couple. Jobs in Hartlepool are few and far between but when talking about jobs the man said that he had seen siutable work, but it had all been "in the cities". Obviously. Not prepared to consider a move away from Hartlepool though, so stuck in a minimum wage job with no prospects. That's their CHOICE though. Most people I know from Uni moved from home to get to uni in the first place, moved for their first job, and have moved again since. If you're only prepared to consider work within your very narrow small town comfort zone, then it's no surprise you struggle.

It can be a psychological thing., Some people just don't want to move from where they are, very settled in the one place and others do move. My Granny moved herself to indian in 1921 for work (as a children's nanny), My mother moved from the mining village for education (teacher training residential) and then for her first job. My father was the same and his family even moved from lincs to the NE for work in the 1800s and then my great aunt to London for work (she trained as a nurse in the 1890s when you couldn't become a doctor if you were female). I suppose once people have had a child it does become harder to move too as they might be near the grandparents or at a good nursery or school.

Oh I get why people find moving difficult. But if you're not prepared to move, you have to accept that you're cutting your prospects considerably.

And I think they did -0 they were content with their choices - both had a degree (this is an earlier episode) and the lower pay /no pay that resulted.

Finally seen

As usual the poorer family had another child they couldn’t afford ......

The rich mum face. Hmmmm. I’ve seen worse but yes a little too much self work

She seemed shocked to
Be in the swap - no shower for 3days. Dirty bitch !!!

And yes poor family thanking dad for the presents - surely would
Come from both of them

Next week looks like old Families meet up?