Anyone watching The Trouble with Girls?

[thegrammerpolicesic]

Very sad. They wound me up from the beginning by smoking when pregnant.

Tiggy, I felt the same about hoodie girl. She seemed a smidge brighter, a smidge more of a go-getter and looked better (as in she had teh common sense to look after herself and brush her teeth) than the other two. I also liked how she was hunting for condoms for the gormless girl (the one who said she never wanted babies) and promised to pick her some up the next day. She was definately more mature in that respect. I really hope she can turn her life around - in a strange way I really quite liked her.

Me too, although I was appalled at how blase she was about her violence, there was something about her that touched me. I think many of the things she said were designed to shock and were a cry for help, whereas the other two seemed to be oblivious to the fact that their lifestyle was
anything less than acceptable. I don't know why, just a hunch, but I think the hoodie girl may be a lesbian. I hope she is, because at least she stands a better chance of not falling into the same miserable hole as the other two, by not getting pregnant so soon. It's the seedy inevitability of it all that just makes me feel sick to the pit of my stomach.

Why are these girls only getting the implants once the damage has already been done? That's we should be concentrating our efforts. That, and getting them to engage better in school. It's all very well saying they come from areas of high deprivation where there is no hope of decent employment, but while they were outside school sniggering at all the suckers still inside, those kids, who probably also found it boring and crap, were sticking to it and doing their best, because they know damn well it's the only chance they have of pulling themselves out of the mire. Its insulting when there are children all over the world missing out on an education because they are working from the age of 9 just to eat. Maybe they should be offering the parents £300 a year for every year their teenaged daughter is implanted and therefore unable to conceive. That should spur them on to take an interest in their wellbeing and futures. Now that really would be government money well spent.

It was thoroughly depressing. I grew up there and my parents are still there, and I knew Rochdale was pretty bad for teenage pregnancy, but I didn't know quite how bad. It saddened me so much especially because the first girl's DD was born within days of my DS (I saw the calendar with due date and worked it out), yet I was twice her age If I'd grown up in that bit of town with parents and friends like that, I might have been expecting my first grandchild rather than my first child

Hoodie girl did seem to have something else about her that the others didn't - you knew it would be the other girl who would get pregnant, rather than her. I was so pleased that she seems to be moving on in her life - I hope it works out for her. But oh the violence, and the smoking, and the swearing. And the sheer fecklessness of the parents - that is what got to me more than anything. Casually handing your daughter a cigarette while talking about her completely-unwanted-but-going-ahead-anyway pregnancy, or not saying much of anything when your daughter tells you she kicked someone in the mouth and wanted to kill him, and not one of 3 adults knowing that the exams children take at 16 are called GCSEs .

I definitely don't agree with forced sterilisation, but I think so much more could be done with teenage girls to promote the use of the contraceptive implant - temporary sterilisation by another name, I guess. But maybe they then wouldn't use condoms and STDs would increase even more.

Thoroughly depressing.

STDs are but a minor inconvenience compared to this, and they aren't using the condoms anyway!

Agree Tigs - there was something about hoodie girl, and the violence, swearing etc, it was a front I think, a wall she was hiding behind, being tough to fit in.

But the parents were something else werent't hey?? The arguing about what GCSE's are called, thinking that Mocks mean she has sat her GCSE's etc. Hoodie's mum especially seemed to be lacking in something.
Sad, very very sad.

Oh, what was that like, watching that?! A real watching through the gaps in my fingers moment - didn't know whether to laugh or cry seeing three grown adults with teenagers all struggling to say GSCE - WTF? GCSEs are clearly an alien concept in those parts, even to the parents of 16 year olds......

Sorry G S C E was supposed to come out in italics there ....

Oh, I watched this.
Was horrific, but felt I had to watch as we are only 20miles away!
I thought exactly the same that the Hoodie girl could be a lesbian. She looked fantastic at the end, really hope she does something with her life.

I was most creeped out by the parents complete and utter ignorance and stupidity (what hope did these girls have?) and the 2 men in their 20s who were just creepy and only with such young girls because they couldn't hack a relationship with someone their own age.

The smoking, the rottweilers and the rascism was terrible (the "asians" worked for their money to buy houses, get it?).

Do feel I should say that not all Rochdale is like that, not at all.

"Hoodie's mum especially seemed to be lacking in something."

Erm yes, a brain and any inkling of what decent parenting is perhaps

It was so depressing, felt desperately sorry for all of them. (apart from the teeth, the stretch marks were something else as well and they weren't that big either!)

Made me really sad to watch.

The soft side of me just thought how awful to never really have love in your life, to never be spoken to with respect, to never feel you're worth anything and to throw your whole life away.

the hard nut side of me just thought: here we go again with this horrible underclass that are breeding out of control and crippling the country financially. And why do they all live in absolute filth?

The thing that depressed me about these girls' lives was how ugly their whole world is. I mean - what do feed their souls on? Music? Poetry? Art? Books? Dance?

I was moved by the way the two girls seemed to come alive on the beach.

Honestly - these children need to be taken out of their surroundings, shown how beautiful the world is and how much there is in life to be excited about.

Also looked at hoodie girl and wondered if she was gay. Definitely thought she could have potential to live a better life than the one she was living - she was .... well, she had a bit more to her than the others.

I agree sabire. 'Uglyness' was the norm - ugly flats/houses, ugly behaviour, everything was crap/rubbish etc (their words).
There seemed nothing to get excited about, nothing to be proud of, nothing to work for.
A very very sad existence.

Im watching this now
Very sad, utterly depressing souless lives - several generations of complete ignorance

The discussion about gcse's gce's or gse's or whatever you call them - oh no she dont need to do them cos shes already done them - the mocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weve got no condoms so weve got nothing to do - nothing at all if we cant have sex (pleasing that she insists on using condoms though)

So sad

The more I think about it the more I'm sure little hoodie is Gay. I'm really hoping she is now. The fact that she's left the town and moved to Leicester with her sister implies that she's looking for something in her life that her oppressive, depressing home town can't give her. She's got more balls (sorry, bad pun!) than the others and more gumption. If she hooks up with a whole new community of friends through her sexuality then hopefully she will meet people from all walks of life and see that there is a better way to live, and better things to strive for. Also, if she's feeling more fulfilled emotionally/sexually perhaps she won't feel the need to be so violent. I rellay hoe so. It would be tragic if all three of them ended up on the scrapheap so young.

The other thing I can never get over is how dog rough and weatherbeaten all these people look at such a young age. It's almost impossible to tell how old anyone over 20 is because they all take on a generic look of decay and abuse that affects their teeth, their hair, their skin, their voice, their muscle tone, even their eyes look hollow and dead.

OMG - the bit where Becki? mixes the powdered breast milk
Did you notice that its actually follow on formula.............. argh!!!!!!!

Tiggy, honestly not all of Rochdale is like that.
In parts it is awful, but not all of it.
Certainly where they were living is not exactly salubrious from what I could see.

Surely the reason Vanessa finally began to find some hope of a future was because her sister in Leicester gave her the sort of boundaries and parenting that her useless mother had failed to do all her life. She said the sister had taken her away to get her away from trouble, made her take off the hoodie, and cracked down on the violence.

I agree that she was the one from the start that had the most going for her by a mile - it was absolutely heartbreaking when she was turned down for the army.

she seemed a sweet and bright girl

Sorry Lizzy - I wasn't meaning Rochdale as a whole, just the immediate environment those girls had.

I agree about the army, and I think they should make exceptions in cases like these. She's gutsy, full of pent-up energy and aggression that needs channelling and honing, and the army would hopefully offer her a 'family' and some boundaries, a sense of belonging and purpose, teach her to respect and allow her to be respected, and add some meaning to her existence, not to mention giving her useful workplace skills skills for when she leaves. I know some people shudder to think of sending the underclass off to become cannon fodder as a way of solving an embarrassing social problem, but I think in some cases it may be the making of them. Someone who's as 'wired' as she is would probably benefit from being channelled into competitive sport, and the army could do that for her too.

We should all write to them and tell them to take her - quick, before she gets pregnant!

Just watched this how utterly depressing.

I was brought up on an estate and a teenage Mum but I have never seen anythng like that before .

Horrible, depressing, sad programme but a true reflection of how millions of people live in this country. There are pockets of people living like this in every town and city in the UK you just don't get to experience it unless you live in it iyswim.

When I watch things like this I always find myself looking at the tiny, innocent babies and wondering at what age we will no longer feel sorry for them and instead feel distaste at what they have become. I agree with most of the comments here as I was also horrified at these people's ignorance but these girls are a product of their parenting so at what point do they become old enough to take responsibility for themselves and 'break the cycle'?

I also found myself warming to the hoodie at points but then had to remind myself what a horrible racist she was!

I so agree with you Belle, but isn't her racism just a reflection of everything she's been taught? It's just like a child who fervently believes in God, because if he's told every day of his life, by the people he trusts, that God is all around him and loves him, and has all the answers, then that becomes his truth. At least until he is old enough to be exposed to others with a different point of view, and depending on how brainwashed he's been he'll either start to think for himself (and may still arrive at the same conclusion) or he won't question his long held beliefs, because the old familiar indoctrination comforts him and provides easy answers in a confusing world.

Poor WC people living living in areas of high immigration get very bitter and twisted that the immigrants are the cause of all their problems. The bulk of those Asians probably settled in the area in the 70's to do low paid factory work that the locals didn't want, and once the factories, mines, mills and steel works all closed, then the locals had no work, and neither did the Asians! Result - whole areas of long-term mass unemployment (especially in the north) where two generations of people have been brought up to believe that there was once a fairytale world when their grandparents had a better life before the Asians arrived. But as we know, the Asians have a stronger work ethic and a tolerance of living in more crowded conditions with extended family, (as opposed to our small nuclear families all requiring their own homes) they also have a very small liklihood of family breakdown/single parenthood, and are much less likely to resort to drink and drugs. All these things combined has made it much easier for them to surivive and rise from the ashes. The white underclass looks all around them and mistakenly thinks that the Asians' relative(albeit modest)success has been at the cost of their livelihoods and their dignity Sadly, there are all sorts of ironies there which are lost on the likes of Vanessa's parents!!!!!

For me, I think the cut off point of sympathy with the children is when they get pregnant and repeat the whole rotten cycle. That's the point where they reach the fork in the road that leads to their future, and they make a choice - the coward's choice. It's so easy to say you would have been a better person, honestly, except fate gave you children.