rich kid, poor kid

[giraffescantdancethetango]

who is watching it then?

That DM article shows that Natalie has a much higher opinion of Alice than most people who watched the programme. Maybe that is partly due to the selective editing of the programme editors.

I hope both girls escape the sins inflicted on them by their families and live good lives.

Well said Artichokes. I feel just as angry at Natalies mother neglecting Gaby's needs and Natalies emotional needs by sitting on her fat arse and smoking and suffering her 'depression'. I've had severe depression for most of my adult life and never allowed my children to parent their siblings or quit school age 15!!! Or sleep on the ruddy filty floor. Funny how she can afford a dog but not a tin of paint for Gaby's room until Natalie got a grant for it.
I do feel quite worried for Alice now. She was just a product of that ghastly mother of hers and now she could be in real danger. And all of those FB groups will just re-inforce all her prejudices and undo all the good work Natalie had done in convincing her that not all lower income people are dangerous chavs.

From Natalie in that article

"But it also seemed to me that Alice was not as close to her mum as I am to mine. Alice has a lot of extracurricular stuff, like going to a tennis club instead of kicking a ball around the park with her mum the way I would. If that's what having more money does to a family, I don't want it."

I use to do youth work as a volunteer and we had a presentation from a policeman about the growing drugs problem in the area. He said that most of the problem kids that they came across happen to be from the wealthier areas because they were the ones with money. The parents had no time for them so just gave them lots of money to ge them off their back.

I have always remembered that, and watching this programme just confirms that it is not the fancy treats, activities, holidays, big houses that children need but unconditional love as well as time from attentive and available parents whether they be rich or middling or poor.

Treafficcone, I thought that too about Natalie's mother. Feeding dogs and smoking is not cheap so home come her 5yo had to sleep on a dirty floor.

She came across as someone who has given up on living and is merely existing.

how come

spokette, my best friend was always handed £20 from her parents if she went near them for anything, mum im bored...oh heres some money off you go...WHAT they thought she could do with a £20 note at 7.30 in the evening I DO NOT KNOW..the only place to spend it was on drink/drugs and by 18 was a junkie

Have watched it now. Obviously Natalie is far easier to warm to, but I have no real issue with Alice. She was just honest (most people aren't quite frankly).

I disliked her mother's racism however

I found her mother's racism to be particularly disquieting as she is a primary school teacher.

I Sky Plussed this so have only just watched it.

I don't really understand the venom directed towards Alice - of course she came across as snobby and crass and as deep as a puddle, but she's just a product of her parenting in the same way as Natalie is.

Alice's mother was the vile and incredibly snobby character in the programme, far more so than Alice as she has had 30 more years than her daughter to develop her disgusting opinions. Alice is a child, sheltered from reality and has a head full of opinions based on nothing more than poison drip fed to her over 15 years by her parents. At least she had the grace to recognise her failings by the end of the programme.

soapbox - i'll stick up for JAGS as I went there - it does offer a huge amount of bursuries and it is academically excellent. I don't recognise alice attitude as anything representative of the school. as for expulsion, I don't know but I would be gobsmacked if there isn't something in the school rules about parents asking permission if you are going to use the schools name publically directly or indirectly without permission and the uniform wearing (its pretty distinctive as I recognised it) is likely to count as that.

and having watched that all through - I ended up feeling sorry (having been infuriated by her) for alice - she did seem to show remorse/change in her views and its hard to tell how much had been edited. As others have said the real culprits are her parents - how is this kind of attention going to help her? and completely agree re her mother's attitude given what she does quattro