Hello and greetings from the past! I've been catching up on this thread since October and was going to wait until I finished before saying anything but she's just done something that has really, really annoyed/upset me and I need to vent. For context I'm on thread 17 and it is May 24th. She's just either been gifted or purchased a fridge and a very heavy sideboard, Mrs J may or may not have left her, she's about to spend some time in a shed with Miguel Barclay and several tubs of mayo, and she's kicked a bloke on the train for sitting next to her.
She has also just tweeted that she hasn't eaten a single proper meal for 16 days and when someone mentioned her son she snipped at them that he eats three meals and two snacks a day and this is what has upset me.
I knew we were poor growing up. We were outsiders living in a council house in a tiny uper middle class village in the early 90s. There was a Happy Shopper but to get to anywhere cheaper it was a 7 mile walk (no car) each way to a small co-op in a nearby village on 60mph roads with no pavement/verge/lights. At the time my super childish concept of 'poor' was that we just didn't have as many toys, our TV was black and white and we ate 95% frozen/tinned/packet food while my friends had 'fancy' food like tomatoes, rice and grapes. We got a family car when I was 7 and things got a lot easier after that because they had access to supermarkets with fresh and cheaper food. It wasn't until I was an adult that I found out my parents had both missed multiple meals every single week for years. My sister and I always had three meals every day (my mum has said this is her proudest accomplishment in life) but there wasn't enough money to feed four people HS food and they had hidden this from us because they didn't want to put the huge guilt and pressure of 'mummy and daddy didn't eat because you had the food instead' onto two young children.
It got me thinking - she's mentioned that her son is banned from googling her because of what other people say about her but he will eventually google her and when he does he will see what she has said about him. He will find dozens and dozens of newspaper articles and blog posts that, while she is railing against the Tories, basically boil down to "I had lots of money and then I had my son and had none," "I had fantastic mental health and then I had my son and I've been repeatedly suicidal ever since," "I lived in great accomodation and then I had my son and slept on the floor without a lightbulb for two years," "I had wonderful physical health and then I had my son and I've never recovered," "I had a great career and then I had my son and couldn't do the job I loved."
Obviously parents have a right to rail against the government if they're struggling because of austerity but it's the way that she writes it - she doesn't say 'things were okay and then they got really hard', she paints this picture of a wonderful amazing life that went to hell after her son was born. I just hope the poor thing doesn't internalise any shame over it.
Okay, I'm back off to thread 17 now that I've said my piece. At the rate this thread moves I'll probably catch up by August. Thanks for keeping me entertained during these lockdowns and a happy new year to all!