The way the economy in UK is right now, there are no jobs. I myself am 18 and have looked arduously for a job since I was 14, then a few months ago, I discovered I was pregnant.
I'm living with my parents, who both work and own our house outright - I couldn't physically bear the patronising environment of school so I left as soon as I could - I had 47% attendance in my final year yet I still managed to pass every GCSE I sat, with flying colours. I tried out college but it was exactly the same environment as school - you're treated like a child.So I left and was looking for work ever since.
By chance one day a few weeks ago, I stumbled across an online article of a mother with something like 14 children who had worked in her life, yet had been given by the council a £500, 000 home and was getting something like £40, 000 a year. All of the comments on the article were people saying how disgusting she is and she made them sick but if you think about it, she's the one sitting there with all of that stuff for nothing! She can afford to take her children on expensive holidays, get them lots of lovely toys for christmas and birthdays, she can afford to have a social life herself, so in all honesty who looks like the fool?
I was quite fascinated by this, so I looked up more of the same thing, and found lots of stories about women with a number of children close to or into double digits, and they're all living the highlife in huge houses that usually only doctors or people with years of training can afford.
There was even a woman with only two children and I can't remember what she was getting a year but she had a house/flat payed for by the government and she'd managed to save up £2000 out of her benefits for presents for her girls who both got iPads, designer outfits and plenty of other things most families wouldn't be able to afford.
I went about finding out how much I could claim when my baby is born and with child benefit, income support and child tax credits it came to something like £139.71 a week or something like that, then also I get free prescriptions from now until he turns one year old, and weekly vouchers for vegetables and milk.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. £140 a WEEK for sitting at home looking after my own child? And honestly, my first thought wasn't even about myself and all the things I can buy.My first thought was 'If I breastfeed for the first 6 months, use my milk and veg vouchers wisely, shop very carefully for only the barest essentials in terms of boring baby stuff that he won't know the difference between, I can probably get the weekly shop to be WELL under £40, meaning I'd have £100 to save up each week, £400 each month, and £4, 800 a year to buy him everything he could ever want, take him on holidays abroad every summer, treat my parents to nice things for letting me live here, and still have money over for the occasional treat for myself!'
You must all realise that to do that leaves you and your children better off! Apprenticeship wage works out at something like £3, 600 a year tops, which is less than I'd be getting. The demeaning rule that minimum wage for under 25's is lower than everyone else's means that even if I got a fulltime job in a supermarket or somewhere, I'd probably be getting around the same as I'm getting for nothing.
Added (1). But this way, I get to spend every minute with my son and be around whenever he needs me, instead of packing him off to a childminder when I go to work, a childminder who gets to witness his first steps, his first words, all such precious moments that every parent should be able to be around for.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a lazy person.It's not like I'm planning to just lie in bed all day every day and spend all my money on myself. Being a mother is a full-time job, a 24 hour job.In a normal 9-5 job you go in, do your work then go home and the rest of the night is yours - the way I see it, my life for the forseeable future is going to be like this 24/7 - I get up, take my child downstairs, he may be still tired and irritable so there may be a tantrum or two, (Lol YOU'RE tired? It was you keeping ME up all night!) I get him dressed for school and fed, teeth brushed, hair brushed etc etc, walk him to school (as we don't have a car and I can't drive due to
Added (2). Epilepsy), come back, do all of the housework, feed and walk the dog, try and find a spare few minutes to make myself a sandwich, do more housework, maybe if I'm lucky I might get an hour to watch tv or invite a friend or relative over for a cup of tea, then go back to the school pick up my son, take him home play with him all evening, make him his tea, make a packed lunch, bath him and get him to bed, oh and then he's ill in the night and won't sleep which means I don't sleep either - then the next day it begins again! So don't worry, I'm not expecting it to be cushy.
And I know that the obvious response I'm going to get is 'Well some people manage to work AND have children' - yes they do, but WHY do that when you don't have to? Surely if someone said to you 'Here is £6, 400, you can either have it for nothing or you can have a fulltime job for a whole year in return for it', the OBVIOUS best thing is to get it without the job?
I understa
Added (3). Nd that with even just the one baby, things are going to be tough. But the thing is, I LOVE children. I wouldn't see any other job as worth it. I want to have lots and lots and lots of them, and with the way the government works I will be able to do that free of charge and while having the money to spoil them all.
I'm not a bad person. I don't hurt anyone. I have a spotless police record, I'm clean and tidy, I don't drink or take drugs and I'm going to ensure that my son and any future children I have are well-mannered, well brought up and aren't nuisances to neighbours wherever we're living. Yes I'm going to give them many things that they want, but not just for nothing. I'll use the money I get for birthdays and christmases only, and for treats if they're praised in school or do a particularly good deed or something like that.
And I don't mean to offend anyone with this question. But if you work and you hate people who don't, I'
Added (4). I'm not stopping you from doing the same as I plan to do. Why not give up work and spend every day with your children? If it's there for the taking… Why not just take it?
Added (5). Jackie - Yes I know, I'll only have this amount of spare money because I'm living with my parents.So I'm lucky there.My Dad is 62 and has very bad gout and arthritis and just basically a lot of medical problems and he used to have a good job as some form of manager on a ferry, but basically a few years back he made a mistake and had to leave, now because of his age and disabilities the only place that would take him on was asda, part time. He's on minimum wage there despite having years of experience in a managerial position and the money is so crap he has to do hours and hours of overtime just to have enough money to pay the bills and to have some over to go out with friends occasionally. He works long hours for SIX days a week, every single week, one time he even worked for 14 days straight getting up at 5am and finishing sometime in the evening and he ended up being struck off for a week with exhaustion. I tell him about how he can get the same amount of money with
Added (6). Out working but he says he'd rather work because he'd get bored. :/
My parents are both good people and good parents but looking back, as a child my Dad was actually only around for half of my life, because his job meant he worked away for two weeks then came home for two weeks. He has anxiety and was always really worried about something happening to me when he was away, like even when I was a baby if I had a cold and had to go to the doctors my Mum said she often just didn't tell him as she knew he'd be manic.In the holidays when my Dad was away I'd always be either at my Grandma's while my Mum was in work or with a childminder. I actually really enjoyed being with the other kids in the childminder's house but thinking about it from a parent's perspective, I don't want to miss that much of my kids' childhood. They're only children for a short number of years and then they're off doing their own thing.
Added (7). Trai - Self-respect and dignity aren't earnt through work, what's earned through work is spending hours away from home, away from family just to get what you could get for NOT working.As it happens, fyi my child was conceived when I lost my virginity.At almost 18. When I was RAPED.So yes, I do have self respect, I'm not just going round slutting it up with some pimply youth because I don't know any better. I was always very careful and ended up losing my first love a few years ago because I wasn't ready to sleep with him and he wanted to.It's only since that chance encounter got me pregnant and I started looking into benefits and stuff and just realised how much of a mugs game it is that you're in school from when you're not much more than a baby until you're on the brink of adulthood, oh and then you're just doing the same thing for the rest of your life but getting paid for it. Or getting paid anyway. Whichever one you choose.
As I've
Added (8). -said, my parents both work and have done since they were younger than me, my father works himself to the point of exhaustion 6 days a week to get MUCH less spending money than I'll be getting for just looking after my son.So I must just be a bad egg, if that's how you want to look at it, lol. But as for me 'never achieving never becoming' whatever you said, well I plan to be a good mother in every way possible, and I'll be able to achieve that with the money I'll be getting and with all of the time I'll have with no other responsibilites other than looking after my child/children. And for me, that's enough. If my son grows up to be a well-grounded, admirable young man then in my opinion, I've done enough.
См. статью: It's workers who are the mugs, not 'scroungers'!