How the other half live

[expatinscotland]

TBH, I've never seen this.

Is it like Wife Swap?

booyhoo: It's not "only" 5 kids. 5 kids is alot. Especially when you don't have the means to support them.

I totally agree with strictly, why the hell is it wrong to say that people should not continue to churn out kids when they are living below the poverty line and that they cannot afford to raise to a decent standard of living?! People have to take responsibility for their own actions and not just do what they want and expect the government or the rest of society to bale them out.It isn;t that hard to use a condom or take the pill- and its free!!

supersalstrawberry "It's pure selfishness, she wanted a big family, she wanted a big house and because she didn't have everything exactly how she wanted those poor kids lived in filth."

i totally agree with this statement. when they provided them with the paint and an oportunity to clear up their homw she whinged that they were making her comfortable there and she didn't want to be comfortable there. she wasn't even thinking about her children having to live in it daily.

i felt so sorry for that boy when the man came to assess his abilities. there was nowhere he could go to do his schoolwork, no wonder he is struggling.

sorry i didn't mean only 5 kids, i know that 5 kids is alot i was just correcting TSC as she thought there were 7 kids.

Strictlytory speaks sense

Thanks I just feel very bad for the 12 year old boy sharing a bed with his sister and the twins sleeping on a sofa bed.

The house was disgusting. A lot of that, I think, was the Mother pinning all her hopes on getting a biggger house so giving up on the current one. You could tell from the outside the house was newish and could have been very nice.

She needs to take responsibility for her own situation. The other family will not give her £2000 a month for the rest of her life so she needs to HELP HERSELF!

We have only just got to the point where we think we can aford DC2 and we live in a 3 bed.

I do think StrictlyTory and supersal have very valid points in their opinions. And, as supersal pointed out, she once had to live on benefits.

I'm not a Tory or a DM reader, I don't see how stating that people have to accept personal responsibility for themselves is horrid, DM, Tory, etc.

She made excuses. A lot of people do. It has to stop in order to get better.

Hopefully, due to the show, they're on the road to doing that.

£21,000 is a lot of money. Even if you have millions, those people put a lot of time, thought and effort and how it could best be put to good use.

I hope it all turns out well.

Caught up with the end, but thanks for telling me

I do think the woman needed to help herself (and not to the hands outs from the other couple)

I have 2 children and could not afford more so I did not have more, It is all well and good she had a crap childhood and and wanted a big family but I do not think she thought it through, they clearly could not support them, and the standard of living was disgusting.
I am glad the little boy is getting help, and I do think all the children were a credit to the parents.

I think the mum is depressed and might need to seek help if not already done so.

I think the better off family were lovely and clearly wanted to help but not just hand over money and see no results.

Hope they get a better home and treat it a bit better, if the dad was a decorator they had no reason not to have clean paint on the walls

I had a dream about this bloody programme, here is the bit that gets me

she is in living room with babies
middle 2 share room 1
so oldest has her own bloody room! WTF? why cant she share???????

My DP got cross with me, as I also dont understand why on earth she had 2 babies if house was so small?

and why can they clean up, tidy, they need to get to IKEA pronto

Its all rather exploitative, and sad

this to me is what DC should watch if he believes in 'Big Society'.

the couple helped out in a way that will hopefully keep paying dividends, helping that child get the help he needs to have a shot at a good job, for example.

they thought about and structured it and tailored it to the family's needs, like getting the bloke a job and the man subsidising half his wages for the initial period.

I found this desperately sad.

I've been there as a child (6 people in one bedroom)

The difference was we weren't dirty or cluttered. We must have had very few clothes and toys but I don't remember having less than other kids. It was a less materialistic time {80's).

The biggest difference was we were all pushed to educate/better ourselves.

The cycle ended there.

Some of my siblings have lots of children but they can afford it!

I can't so stick with a comfortable 3.

We aren't 'high-flyers' but normal hard-working people.

If you have a mortgage you can only afford to move to a bigger house if you have the money. Money doesn't suddenly appear just because you have more kids. Why do people in council and HA houses think that they're entitled to a bigger house just because they have more kids? It's crazy.

The women on the programme really annoyed me. Her house was a mess because she couldn't be bothered to look after it. They may not have had much money but with three of the kids at school and her DH out of work, meant that during school time it would be two adults looking after two kids. I think this makes it very feasible to do a bit of housework!

I don't understand why the youger sister didn't share with the older sister. It was like they deliberately had the brother and younger sister sharing for sympathy votes. She wasn't interested in bunk beds because she just expected to get a new house. I think she tripped herself up a bit when she talked about how a friend told her to get a wadrobe because it was better space wise. That was pushing it a bit far. Since when was wadrobes a new thing for a bedroom?! Surely her DH could of mended the wardrobe - again I guess this was for sympathy votes.

I agreed with the rich family. There was no point in giving them money unless they proved to them that they were commiteed to making a difference.

Exactly, the wardrobe shelf had broken! It doesnt take an MA in engineering to fix a shelf FFS! She was taking it a bit far there...

I found the show last night desperately sad. That poor boy going to school in PE shoes with holes in them. Our school always used to have Outgrown But Not Outworn sales so even children with less money could have a decent uniform. It was very difficult not to judge when she talked about wanting a big family. I grew up in a very small family and would love 4 kids, but I know that if I had that many it would be more of a struggle which just wouldn't really be fair.

With a lot of the other families in the series there was a sense that things would get better for the families - the lady setting up her catering company or the Zimbabwean lady going to college and her kids in private schools. I didn't get a sense that the mum last night was very pro-active. She just seemed to be sitting back waiting for handouts. It may be depression at such a horrible situation. I hope the rich family will get her some help which improves her attitude.

I'm not sure we were told the full facts about the 'poor' family.

A quick run of their circumstances using EntitledTo shows they would have a benefits income of approx £28K per year. Her child benefit alone would be £100.70p per week. I can't understand how she couldn't afford shoes for her son.

I also wondered whether she was playing the system a bit by claiming that her home was too crowded for her partner to stay there so he had to spend some nights each week elsewhere. Wouldn't that enable her to claim as a single parent rather than as a couple.

I did feel very sorry for the children. Their mother seemed to have no sense of social responsibility by continuing to produce more children she couldn't support to the detriment of her older children.

Just shows that no matter how much money you throw at some things it doesn't improve the situation.

I was wrong ^ - the child benefit for 5 would be £73.90 per week

Nobody will read this but I thought the exact same thing as porcamiseria this morning, I woke up and thought wtf as to the sharing or not of the bedrooms.

Putting different-sex older children together was deliberate. Especially in the one bed.

I mentioned it first thing to DH who agreed with a for fucks sake yes, dear, quite right.

many things made me think

why did boy/girl share a bed,why not the 2 sisters or get bunk beds

again why not put all 3 in a room and twins in the 2nd so least mum and dad sleep on sofa bed

why have more than 3 kids if already living in a 2 bed house, she said she had been on council list for 7 years to move - so waaaaaaaaaaaaay before twins were concieved

why the hell should she get a 4 bed house just as she didnt keep her legs crossed (dh thought and friad mine as well)

maybe the council/government should steralise familys who keep popping out kids but cant afford them

tho cant see how 6 living in that space is ok, tho 7 obv isnt

felt so sorry for kerien who had a reading/writing age of someone half his age so glad he was getting help

why was the house in such a shit dirty messy state with kids at school and only 2 babies to look aftre and 2 adults

why couldnt they make the garden nice so least extra space for kids to go

where did the dad stay when not living there

what was wrong with rich dad, he said had a serious illness and only got discovered/cured because of money

i totally agree with the way they rich family handled it, there is no point in giving money if they cant look after/respect what they already had

cant beleive they trashed the sofa bed in a week, it was covered with food/white marks

juice in bottles is a total no go with me

i just hope that they manage to try and sort out their family a bit and fab keiren got a chance to work with cars and hope dad managed to stay in his job that he got found

I was just glad to see a different type of family this week. I do find the whole series pretty patronising but this weeks at at least showed people with housing issues. I never liked the private school one at all, it felt very uncomfortable to me. Im glad the little boy is getting help with his dyslexia. I thought the rich dad still looked ill tbh, unless he was alot older than his wife.

Blond I agree with you on everything you have said

Its all very cleverly edited. I hate that series but, feel compelled to watch it!

runawaywife - thanks, wasnt to sure if i was being a bitch with my comments