Jack Monroe #433 Let them eat copies of Thrifty Kitchen

[Saltfish84]

My boy calls me Mama. But he is only 15 months. And I will never create a nasty chore list like that for him.

Coz I’m not a narcy bleep.

 

[Julia Edwards]

To be fair, she dresses like she’s just rolled out of bed, or like a complete bleeping maniac who covered themselves in glue and rolled through Harvey Nics when there are awards ceremonies full of famous people to suck up to, so she’s just a sartorial nightmare at awards dos full stop.
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God, in that first outfit she always makes me think of those Murano glass clowns.

 

[WhyYouCry?]

My children call me mama… not instigated by me, it just sort of happened! We have a lot of family in France and Spain and spend a fair amount of time in both countries, so I think that plays a part. I would never refer to myself as mama to others though and when they’re with friends they call me mum as they know they’d probably get laughed at for mama! I’m sure mum will take over as they get older.

 

[Terrible]

Sorry to be off-topic but can any of you lovely peeps recommend a cookery book for my teenager (15) for Christmas? He’s showing a real interest recently and I thought it might be nice to buy him one that we can kinda work through together…

If he’s a complete beginner he might like James May’s book, Oh Cook - the accompanying series on Amazon Prime is quite funny. It’s very standard traditional recipes, spag bol, pies, puddings etc, working its way up to a roast dinner.

Or Jamie’s latest is great.

 

[Justacatindisguise]

Can I just say a big thank you to everyone for their posts about the chore list? I don't have kids and was a carer for both parents at various points from 12-19ish and cooking unsupervised from about 8 so my perspective on what's reasonable was definitely a bit off.

Sort of on topic question: what age do you all reckon is okay to use weedkiller? My neighbours kids (8-11ish? I don't even know lol) do my front garden for pocket money and the eldest gave me a bit of a heart attack last time when he asked if I had any but I figured his mum must trust him with it

 

[NellieBoo]

I know many disagree but I don't think kids should do anything if the mother doesn't work as jack doesn't. Let kids be kids. They have enough on with school and homework. My mum never worked but had me cooking full roast dinners for the whole family while she harangued an raged at a 10 yr old not doing it right. I didn't get anything from it except a feeling of never being able to relax in my own home. Some friends said I'd feel differently when I had my own - not the case, just reinforced how utterly wrong it was. She's a horror for that list. An sharing it as if expecting kudos is just bizarre.

This is so upsetting and has reminded me of my first boyfriend. He lived in a house share with his mum, 3 siblings and another mum and daughter. Both Mums worked full time. So they had a system for evening meals where they all took turns to buy ingredients for a meal and to cook one night a week. Which fine (ish) but what actually happened was the Mums would do a shop and put money in the 'food kitty' on a Friday and they cooked Friday/Saturday night. So plenty of money to buy food. My boyfriend and his much younger brother's nights were Wednesday and Thursday. So not much money and not much left in the house . His Mum would scream, shout, belittle them both for only producing tuna pasta and similar each week. It got so bad that my Mum, god love her, would give him a food parcel on a Wednesday so his brother and him both had a decent amount of food for their nights. And I tit you not, these two women were family SOCIAL WORKERS.

 

[Limey]

This is so upsetting and has reminded me of my first boyfriend. He lived in a house share with his mum, 3 siblings and another mum and daughter. Both Mums worked full time. So they had a system for evening meals where they all took turns to buy ingredients for a meal and to cook one night a week. Which fine (ish) but what actually happened was the Mums would do a shop and put money in the 'food kitty' on a Friday and they cooked Friday/Saturday night. So plenty of money to buy food. My boyfriend and his much younger brother's nights were Wednesday and Thursday. So not much money and not much left in the house . His Mum would scream, shout, belittle them both for only producing tuna pasta and similar each week. It got so bad that my Mum, god love her, would give him a food parcel on a Wednesday so his brother and him both had a decent amount of food for their nights. And I tit you not, these two women were family SOCIAL WORKERS.

Oh god, the poor lad.

The more I read about this 'chore list' baws, the more I'm convinced she isn't the resident parent. Hope SB has a nice life with his Dad, far away from this lunatic.

Imagine performatively feeding your child bollock sausages and rinsed hoops, whilst you were stocking up on Abel and Cole deliveries, Cotswold Co sideboards and j1g.

 

[Lalalalalalalalalalala]

do any of the older fraus remember when SB was in maybe year 6 and jack cheerfully tweeted about how she follows him and his mates home on the school run, saying that she explained to him that due to being a celeb it’s not safe for him to walk on his own? absolute horror

It's such narc parenting. Claim it's about keeping him safe, but really it's about control, watching what he's doing and saying and stopping him from forming relationships with others. If she genuinely cared about his safety she'd stop tweeting about him and put together a plan for what to do if something happened to him, ie call the police.

 

[Foxvint]

I know we don't do too much AM chat on here but I seem to have missed that she's locked her twitter....

 

[NellieBoo]

Can I just say a big thank you to everyone for their posts about the chore list? I don't have kids and was a carer for both parents at various points from 12-19ish and cooking unsupervised from about 8 so my perspective on what's reasonable was definitely a bit off.

Sort of on topic question: what age do you all reckon is okay to use weedkiller? My neighbours kids (8-11ish? I don't even know lol) do my front garden for pocket money and the eldest gave me a bit of a heart attack last time when he asked if I had any but I figured his mum must trust him with it

I think it depends on the child and the weed killer! A sensible 11 year old with a trigger spray bottle of weedol, yes. A full on back canister spray system, not so much! I would definitely have allowed my 11 year old to do this, with weedol!, after a bit of a safety talk. I'm not so sure I'd have allowed him from about 13-16 actually . Because him and his mates morphed into gigantic toddlers .

 

[Shawads]

Everytime I see Jack's comments about Mama, I can't help but think about the Genesis song, "Mama", which is about a bloke obsessed with a prostitute who is not interested in him. He has an Oedipal fixation on her and insists on calling her "Mama." Mama, MAMAAAAAAAAA Please....

Gee whizz I loved this genesis album all my life, I never even considered the meaning of these lyrics.

Brings back warm memories of blissful times with people I lost contact with before internet. I have no idea where they are anymore ( I do look occasionally, as do others)
We lived so differently then, a moment in time!
Makes me feel old but I really want to listen to this now
Was chatting to some old friends yesterday and how we remember every pink Floyd lyric but forget how we ended up in the kitchen.
I digress

 

[Clarends]

Can I just say a big thank you to everyone for their posts about the chore list? I don't have kids and was a carer for both parents at various points from 12-19ish and cooking unsupervised from about 8 so my perspective on what's reasonable was definitely a bit off.

Sort of on topic question: what age do you all reckon is okay to use weedkiller? My neighbours kids (8-11ish? I don't even know lol) do my front garden for pocket money and the eldest gave me a bit of a heart attack last time when he asked if I had any but I figured his mum must trust him with it

I'd say never re the weedkiller. Really dangerous stuff.

And chore list related I think kids should be kept away from household chemicals. Me and my mates responded to the instructions - don't mix bleach and other toilet cleansers - by doing just that. Nothing happened but it could have been very toxic.

 

[mince]

I know we don't do too much AM chat on here but I seem to have missed that she's locked her twitter....

Attempted troll swerve.

 

[RamblerOfLandandMouth]

[QUOTE="Justacatindisguise, post:

Sort of on topic question: what age do you all reckon is okay to use weedkiller? My neighbours kids (8-11ish? I don't even know lol) do my front garden for pocket money and the eldest gave me a bit of a heart attack last time when he asked if I had any but I figured his mum must trust him with it
[/QUOTE]

I wouldn't give weedkiller because it really is toxic if they use it carelessly....white vinegar works just as well on weeds dear put it in a spray bottle and they will never know! Salt also works if the weeds are on paving but don't use on soil...kills everything.

 

[Shawads]

Can't find the post to respond to now but I think she had to be careful about over egging the poverty childhood pudding ref parents and food etc as its on camera and spoken by her, rather than in print by a journo ...
When she bullshits paper she can easily tell her family she was misrepresented whereas the interviews are too transparent.
I think the interviewer would have ben gutted not to have any meaty childhood trauma stories.
Tbh I couldn't watch past 5 minutes so am basing my theory on other posts on Tattle

 

[Justacatindisguise]

I think it depends on the child and the weed killer! A sensible 11 year old with a trigger spray bottle of weedol, yes. A full on back canister spray system, not so much! I would definitely have allowed my 11 year old to do this, with weedol!, after a bit of a safety talk. I'm not so sure I'd have allowed him from about 13-16 actually . Because him and his mates morphed into gigantic toddlers .

Okay that's reassuring, it was a spray bottle and a quick safety talk. I don't even trust myself with the other kind

I wouldn't give weedkiller because it really is toxic if they use it carelessly....white vinegar works just as well on weeds dear put it in a spray bottle and they will never know! Salt also works if the weeds are on paving but don't use on soil...kills everything.

I had no idea, thanks! I'll definitely give that a go, weedkiller + cats makes me anxious anyway.

 

[Droosie123]

Oh god, the poor lad.

The more I read about this 'chore list' baws, the more I'm convinced she isn't the resident parent. Hope SB has a nice life with his Dad, far away from this lunatic.

Imagine performatively feeding your child bollock sausages and rinsed hoops, whilst you were stocking up on Abel and Cole deliveries, Cotswold Co sideboards and j1g.

She lives in Thorpe Bay, he lives in Basildon by all accounts amd also attends school there. She’s not stable enough to be resident parent. I would put money on there having been some social services intervention at some point….enough that her ability to keep him safe was questioned seriously . If she was drinking like she says she was then clearly she was not a fit parent at that stage.

 

[NellieBoo]

Okay that's reassuring, it was a spray bottle and a quick safety talk. I don't even trust myself with the other kind

Well you may not want to take my advice judging by other Fraus responses . It really does depend on the child and (possibly) their motivation for doing the chore!

When my son started secondary school, I'd eased him into coming home to an empty house, opening the door, preparing a snack or whatever, starting at the end of year 5 into year 6. I worked part time and finished at 2pm. So did this by nipping out just before he came home some days. This was with me being able to go full time in mind. He was SO SENSIBLE.

He's 17 now and I STILL WORK PART TIME . They become absolute goof balls and so do their mates that they bring home. I'm only just now picking up extra hours at work with a view to going full time .

 

[Lumpyspaceprincess]

Yes it reads like fantasy parenting. When child was 8 the thing that took most of my time was as taxi service to different after school clubs/lessons.
she’s never mentioned scouts or karate for him has she?

As for the rest there isn’t much more than what you would be doing as a working adult — washing clothes, making dinner. She won’t know this

 

[Everytown]

I bet they just ate once the kids were in bed. My brother and SiL like to eat really late, so never eat with my niece. And I've known a few people who eat different meals to the kids, so eat later on too.

We'd mostly eat as a family as children, but on days we did activities, we'd be fed first, and then my parents would have something later - I can smell pesto pasta every time I hear the MASH theme tune, because that's what they'd have whilst watching reruns when we'd been put to bed.

We generally feed the kids and pack them off to bed before we have dinner ourselves, mainly because it's so much easier, and we always have something different, anyway. I think there may be a subconscious reaction against both of us have endured "we all eat together/the same thing" meals as kids, with various traumatic memories as a result. I daresay when they're actually eating the same stuff as us, we'll adjust accordingly, but we're nowhere near that stage yet.