Dispatches - Growing Up Poor

[TurquoiseKiss]

Did anyone see this? I'm half way through on catch up - very tough to watch.

[dontalltalkatonce]

God, yes, getting themselves pregnant! Those men having sex and not being settled first. It's all going to the dogs! Someone call the Shame Police . Funny how 'the government' hasn't tightened up on men who don't pay to support their kids.

[Bluebutterfly90]

But seriously, dotty, the only point you're making is that you're shockingly out of touch. Many people are one disaster away from being in poverty. I'm sure its comforting to believe that you are safe if you make all the 'right' choices, but that just isn't true.

[HigherFurtherFasterBaby]

@Bluebutterfly90

Yes, after we’ve emasculated 20 men we spontaneously reproduce.

[dontalltalkatonce]

One of the families lost a child to cancer, the cheek of them, choosing devastating illness and death and then not just reporting to the workhouse! No shame! The fact that so many people think like dotty is the reason so many prefer dogs to people.

[HigherFurtherFasterBaby]

My Grandmothers father was in a workhouse at 4 years old. The stuff I read was horrific.

But hey, at least he earned his keep after his father was murdered and his mother committed suicide, aye?

[stophuggingme]

@dottypotter you have really depressed me. Not just because I despair at the level of swathe cutting ignorance you are displaying here, but also because I fear there are a fair few too many of your ilk out there.

You are reducing yourself to making inhuman and prejudiced decisions about society that if it translates into a vote for the Conservatives means that millions of innocent people who through no fault of their own will be condemned to an early death, trapped in abusive relationships, unable to get a decent job, years of grinding poverty and deteriorating mental health, isolation, unhappiness and a chance to actually get out of a pit and do something with their lives. And why?
Oh that’s right. Because of some anecdotal drivel about a pregnant woman looking for some help because she was pregnant. Or some other guff.

The one thing that this government has excelled at is making self absorbed, ignorant and uncaring people feel good about themselves and these “values”. It actually allows them to throw us all under the bus.

[JustAnotherPoster00]

It was normal it wasn't a privilege. Everything has gone downhill today. Yes it is pretty disgusting getting yourself pregnant and then saying what can I get. Some people have no shame a lot of people are doing it more than once also. The government are not a bottomless pit of money. If you want to keep having sex and not getting settled and self sufficient what has it got to do with them. No wonder they have had to toughen up.

Ok Boomer

[dontalltalkatonce]

You win, Just !

[BeBraveAndBeKind]

@dottypotterThey stayed married never asked for a house or any money apart from the normal child benefit that all parents got.

Well how lovely for you. My parents saved to get married, had four children and had a house that was tied to my dad's job. Then my dad died leaving my mum a widow with four young children.

She worked long shifts to make ends meet while I looked after my siblings. She met a man who seemed charming but she realised, after they'd bought a house together, that he was an abusive alcoholic who spent the money faster than she could earn it. Cue debt and poverty and doorstep loans and CCJs. Anyone's life can turn to shit at a moment's notice and we should all remember that and show some compassion rather than judgement.

[Shinesweetfreedom]

I really think everybody should be paying more tax so these situations don’t happen.Really if you have a household income of 20 thousand or more,they should increase the tax rate.The extra tax will go to those who have nothing.Those on 20 thousand or more would not miss the extra 300 or 400 hundred a year,and it could help enormously those who have no money.

[HeIenaDove]

"I always wonder why the period poverty charities don't give out reusable mooncups or cloth pads"


Are you pro choice? Because you dont sound like it. You do realize that "my body my choice" MEANS JUST THAT Its not ONLY a womans right whether or not to carry on with a pregnancy It also means a right to choose what to put in or what enters her body.

And that includes whether or not to use a mooncup/cloth pad Lady Bountiful.

Or is the right to choose something else society wants to rip away from women further down the socio economic scale.

FFS!

[OlaEliza]

Carry on polluting the planet then 🤷

[OlaEliza]

I'm sure people using tissue and leaking everywhere because they can't afford pads would rather have something reliable every month instead of wondering where that months protection is going to come from.

[Paddingtonthebear]

Anyone's life can turn to shit at a moment's notice and we should all remember that and show some compassion rather than judgement.

This should be printed on peoples payslips.

[HeIenaDove]

Its not just a choice of tissues or mooncups pro lifer.

There is disposable sanpro THEN there are those of us who have to use TENA.

[ReanimatedSGB]

Also, again, those of you insisting that poverty is the poor's own fault would only need to do a very little basic research to understand that completely unregulated capitalism is the source of much of the problems. Casino-style banking practices, predatory monopolies etc have done far, far more damage than the type of social progression which means women can end abusive marriages or have access to contraception.
Don't forget that Brexit itself is and was absolutely fuck-all to do with the EU, or even nationalism. It's a heist, a big scam, perpetrated and funded by a handful of billionaires who don't want to be subject to the incoming EU tax laws which will put a stop to extreme wealth hoarding. That was always what it was about.

[Gilead]

How hard is it to work out that if you can't afford Sanpro, the likelihood of being able to buy powder and run a washing machine is pretty slim?

Dotty your anecdata is unsupported by evidence. Try again.

[dontalltalkatonce]

I'm sure people using tissue and leaking everywhere because they can't afford pads would rather have something reliable every month instead of wondering where that months protection is going to come from.

That they can't wash because they can't afford to, don't have access to anything but a shared sink, have nowhere to dry the things in the one room they are sharing with the whole family in a B&B (that they also have to be out of from 9-5). Not everyone can use a mooncup, either, and I say that was someone has done so for well over a decade.

[OlaEliza]

😂😂😂 I'm not middle class. At all.

And what train stunt are you talking about @HelenaDove? I think you've got me mixed up with someone else.

[OlaEliza]

I grew up in the ends, bruv. What suburb or home county do you come from?

And I'm a heavy bleeder, so I use a cloth pad with a mooncup when necessary.

And cloth pads can be handwashed. Many recommend it rather than machine washing too.

[dontalltalkatonce]

And cloth pads can be handwashed. Many recommend it rather than machine washing too.

And again, a lot of people have a shared sink to use, no place to dry them and/or cultural barriers and issues surrounding menstruation that might not lead to them want to use mooncups and cloth pads. Also, as stated, mooncups don't suit some people, so giving them away when they're as expensive as they are isn't really workable.

[dottypotter]

No I'm not lucky my father didn't run off. Today's generation haven't got the commitment. People break up over the slightest thing. Then expect the gvt to help. They only have the money they are getting from people's tax. Now every person who gets pregnant wants help it's awful. What have people's sex lives and the way they conduct themselves got to do with the Government. No wonder there are so many social problems and mental health problems how many children today are growing up with their natural parents together. It's disgusting. If you can't see it you must have been living on another planet. As I said there are some genuine cases of hardship and illness but in the main people are managing their lives badly and making bad choices. How come also there is so much contraception around now but more and more casual pregnancies is that because people know they can get help from the Gvt. Would they still act like this if you couldn't go running to the Government.

[OlaEliza]

Branded mooncups are expensive, but there are many others now that aren't. And they may be more expensive at first as an initial outlaw but much more economical after that. After a couple of months they have paid for themselves.

If I couldn't afford pads every month, or didn't even have anyway of washing csp, I know what I'd rather.

[HeIenaDove]

Essex Eliza Mum was a factory worker. Dad a site foreman.