Ok long post i am sorry .
Speaking as a child whose dad died when i was 9, me and my sister had no choice but to grow up quick. Mum still had to work to provide for us. She had a good job but long hrs so we used to have to prepare a meal for us to eat so mum had a meal to come home too. Am not talking beans on toast. We learnt to cook. At 10yrs i was cooking full roast dinners and homemade desserts. We never got to go to clubs or school trips because the money and time wasn't there. We never got what every other peer had like good shoes or fashion clothes, we got what mum could afford. Our grandparents took us on lovely holidays but not with mum as she had to work. Do i resent my child hood... absolutely not as its made me the person i am today. It gave me opportunities to develop my baking and cookery skills but what it has done is made me so incredibly focused and determined that my daughter will never experience what i did. It wasn't mums fault of course but we missed out on so much.
My daughter will never be spoiled with material items but she is spoiled with our love and time. I pride myself on the fact she is only 3.5yr, knows her alphabet, can read (her dad is a genius... Principal Business Intelligence is his job title so that is where her brains come from), she goes dancing, swimming, we do a craft daily, go for nature walks, listen to the world around us, visit friends, have play dates, bake or simply play in the sink. She is fortunate in the sense i am retired (medical grounds i had 3 strokes, a brain tumour and my bowel died) so i am available to tend to her every need. We are there for her 24/7. We choose not to go out unless we are all going because we are a family and do not expect others to care for our daughter.
Tim and Ella to me have parenting so very wrong. They put their own needs above their children. They use the excuse of its what families do. No its not. They are doing it because they arent giving them the option. They are so narcissistic they can not see how knackered Ellas mum must be or how all this will impact the children and will always manipulate the situation for them to be the victims. Sure my family and friends would all jump at the chance to have our child but we chose not to. They chose to rob the children of any childhood, they chose to neglect parental responsibilities and say its helping them grow. They may think that now but 30yrs down the line the kids will be thinking you failed me, You are the reason i cant get a job, i don't understand how society works and i don't understand what a real family or a relationship is. X