Moon-Crane wrote:Your comment regarding child benefits reminded me of something else actaully.
I was watching the local news a few months back, and there was a report focused on a couple who were complaining that the local authority weren't giving them a 5-bedroom council house because they now had 3 children and the mother was pregnant with a fourth. They lived in a two bedroom council house and they were filmed with the baby in a cot placed in a built-in cupboard space to make the point of the lack of space in the house
They were really having a go at the council and saying how were they expected to live this way? The council representatvie was saying they simply had no houses of that size available at the time and there was a waiting list for many people in similar positions!
Now, my reaction is that you know your means of living and the size of the accomodation you've already been
given - why have more children and outgrow that? And why expect the authorities to simply accomodate your needs, rather than waiting until you're independently able to provide for a larger family yourselves? I live in a two-bedroom place with my fiancee and I don't expect anyone else to just give us a bigger house, money to have children, etc.
I'm not saying this couple were having these children just to get more benefits - the report was certainly geared sympathetically towards them - but there seemed to be no thought of self resonsibility for having so many children and being in an overcrowded situation. I think this sort of situation coincides with the point you were making, though.
I agree with you 100% there. Some people in this country think that it is their right to have as many children as they want, and that they should be supported to do so. What the council should actually give them, instead of a new house, is a pack of condoms!
I watched a documentary a while back about poverty in Britain. I wouldn't ever generalise and say that if people are financially hard up, it's their own fault, because that's simply not true. However - I do think that in
some cases, it
is their fault, and that bad decisions and lifestyle choices get them there.
One of the families interviewed included two parents and three grown-up daughters. Each of the daughters was a single parent, two of them had multiple children by different fathers. None of them were working, they were all struggling with poor health, run-down housing and drink problems. I know documentaries sometimes play to stereotypes, but usually there's some basis of truth that leads to stereotyping!
Anyway - two of the daughters were pregnant again. One of them was interviewed, and said that she was worried for her baby. She didn't know where they could live, or how she could afford to feed it as her benefits didn't stretch far enough (as she grabs a fresh pack of fags from the table behind her). The interviewer said to her "so why did you decide to have another baby?"
She replied, saying "Well, that's what women are supposed do, isn't it?"
What hope is there when people think in that way?! Where did that come from - did her parents teach her that, did she learn it from experience because everyone around her was having child after child? Did she think there was no other choice? It worries me greatly, because I'm sure she's nowhere near alone in thinking this way!