Scummy Mummies

[Smell_my_cheese]

I’ve always quite liked Helen but i’m finding her single parent thing so unrelatable. It’s not her fault I suppose, I’m just jealous she gets to jet off constantly on single parent holidays to ‘recharge’ before going on holiday with her children and mates when I’m also a single mum with a completely unsupportive ‘other parent’ who will have spent the sum total of 3 days with his children by the end of this summer holiday.

Also, where does she get all the money to constantly be going away?!

Again, that’s not Helen’s fault but it’s a bit of a smack in the face when she’s extolling how wonderful it is to be a single mum when in reality, for many of us, it is hard and relentless with very little/no chance to recharge. But I think I’m probably just bitter and jealous

 

[Antonina]

Thing is she is NOT a single mum, she is single and a co-parent. That single mum narrative she flogs is false.

 

[rogueapostrophe]

Nobody could call her out on that other than the ex maybe

 

[LowCalCalzoneZone]

I’ve always quite liked Helen but i’m finding her single parent thing so unrelatable. It’s not her fault I suppose, I’m just jealous she gets to jet off constantly on single parent holidays to ‘recharge’ before going on holiday with her children and mates when I’m also a single mum with a completely unsupportive ‘other parent’ who will have spent the sum total of 3 days with his children by the end of this summer holiday.

Also, where does she get all the money to constantly be going away?!

Again, that’s not Helen’s fault but it’s a bit of a smack in the face when she’s extolling how wonderful it is to be a single mum when in reality, for many of us, it is hard and relentless with very little/no chance to recharge. But I think I’m probably just bitter and jealous

I don't think you're bitter and jealous! I'm not a single parent but I grew up with a single mother and very absent father, and I find her take on single parenthood quite odd. I know everyone has different experiences and I do think she means well, but I just find all her posts so disingenuous now - it's pretty obvious things can be as amazing as she makes out and when you start to not believe someone, you stop engaging. Well I do anyway

I used to love their content but just find myself scrolling past now and never checking their stories which is a shame

 

[Missymoo92]

I’ve always quite liked Helen but i’m finding her single parent thing so unrelatable. It’s not her fault I suppose, I’m just jealous she gets to jet off constantly on single parent holidays to ‘recharge’ before going on holiday with her children and mates when I’m also a single mum with a completely unsupportive ‘other parent’ who will have spent the sum total of 3 days with his children by the end of this summer holiday.

Also, where does she get all the money to constantly be going away?!

Again, that’s not Helen’s fault but it’s a bit of a smack in the face when she’s extolling how wonderful it is to be a single mum when in reality, for many of us, it is hard and relentless with very little/no chance to recharge. But I think I’m probably just bitter and jealous

And on the flip side she goes on about "um, just had a week away with my kids, um, so um yeah big shout out to single mums doing all the bleeping work, um yeah I'm off for a week now as it's hard bleeping work being a single parent and doing all the work alone".



She is a walking bleeping contradiction

 

[rogueapostrophe]

The week away where she got her mate to look after the kids every time she went out running for miles and miles?

 

[petitspois]

I’m on holiday with my kindle and finally got round to reading Helen’s book, which I got on a 99p spree a while ago. Some of her Insta content makes more sense now, and I actually think she paints a good picture of the freedom that comes from realising you’re no longer in a bad relationship (even if you didn’t realise it at the time).

BUT I think it straddles genres unhelpfully. It’s a personal account claiming to be an advice book, with chunks of wisdom from various Insta experts. It doesn’t really work, as I can imagine it making women going through similar events without the benefits of a close knit family, group of friends, experts to hand feel very inadequate and lost.

For example, she does nod towards this when starting her chapter on friends, admitting that some people will not be as lucky as her, but (rightly, for a memoir) says she can only tell her own story. But then tells everyone that friends are crucial and advises them to get a range of people for various things around them. Just not doable for many of us. She promotes an app for single parents to meet each other as if that will sort everything out.

I think I’ve got decent friends but I wouldn’t have the group around me that she does if something went wrong, and reading this book would really make me feel it. I think it would for a lot of people and I worry that they will buy this at a vulnerable moment and end up feeling worse.

I always think advice telling you to call upon support really unhelpful as many of us just don't have those support networks so you end up feeling worse.

 

[Antonina]

What also annoyed me is her bragging about going on holiday with the kids without a car cause she doesn’t have a licence, but she made it bla bla bla - as if we should give her a pat in the back.

She’s going on holiday ffs not to perform brain surgery! Travelling comfortably within the U.K. with trains and taxis with her near teen children.

I get it she’s proud of herself, she’s a strong independent woman etc but seriously who cares

 

[Affiliatemebaby]

I think she genuinely finds her life better now she’s out of a bad relationship. Many people do - a lot of people are happier eventually after divorce. She is very lucky to have plenty of friends, resources, a co-parent who has the kids every week and half the holidays, a thriving career with presumably manageable child care arrangements. I also assume she still has moments of feeling angry/betrayed. She apparently has lots of amazing sex now too.

But I just thought the book had the potential to really upset vulnerable people going through a divorce without recourse to all or even some of those things. More practical advice and fewer glowing moments where her vast friendship group told her how wonderful she was would have helped. That might all be true but I’m not sure it was necessary in this book. I think I might have thrown it out of the window!

 

[rogueapostrophe]

She has an amazing support network that many other people getting divorced would simply not have access to.

I am sure she does feel anger and a lot of her posts feel very performative towards the ex. She never mentions co-parenting or blended families so I think it's fairly clear that she wants nothing to do with the ex and the new partner that the kids must spend lots of time with, hence the constant single mum narrative as she has opted out of co-parenting.

 

[pinkelsie]

I love the way you can always tell which one of them is writing the posts

 

[petitspois]

I think that post is ill advised. There’s a huge wave of positive support for The Queen and therefore it feels crass to discuss ‘change’. Who are they to raise it anyway? A couple of comedians? Random

 

[pinkelsie]

I think that post is ill advised. There’s a huge wave of positive support for The Queen and therefore it feels crass to discuss ‘change’. Who are they to raise it anyway? A couple of comedians? Random

A couple of tit comedians

 

[Realhousewifeofmanchester]

I think that post is ill advised. There’s a huge wave of positive support for The Queen and therefore it feels crass to discuss ‘change’. Who are they to raise it anyway? A couple of comedians? Random

So random - like they are worried that if they don’t comment, they will be perceived as being staunch royalist.
The ego of them to feel the need to comment at all.

 

[Missymoo92]

So random - like they are worried that if they don’t comment, they will be perceived as being staunch royalist.
The ego of them to feel the need to comment at all.

Until that post I don't think either of them had any anything regarding the queen? I'm not a royalist but I've posted a simple photo and "rest in peace" you think they could at least manage that though with Helen I'm not surprised given how "woke" she likes to be

 

[petitspois]

I think it's the 'we are listening' that really gets me. You are two vaguely successful comedians and need to get some perspective and realise people don't care what you think. One of you is Australian anyway.

I remember last year Motherland was up for an award. Now that's a genuinely really funny show about motherhood and parenting and the Scummies posted a sarcastic jibe at TV executives who had turned them down when they pitched a show about the same topic. As if theirs would have been half as funny!

 

[pinkrobot]

It was really misjudged and quite frankly offensive. Whether you're a monarchist / republican / in the middle just have some respect for a recently passed lady who devoted her whole life to this country and touched millions of people.

The pomposity of "if not now, when?" - well how about after the late Queen has been buried. I've never known them to engage in any serious political debates before. So why start now girls?! I noticed many of their influencer friends gave it a big swerve.

 

[LowCalCalzoneZone]

I think it's the 'official statement ' nature of the post - as if loads of people have been waiting on tenterhooks for them to say something about it when probably no one has. Just a bit pointless really

Or maybe they just did it for the engagement, going by the amount of comments they got

 

[weeweegie]

Ugh I just have went right off the pair of them but in particular Helen. Not interested in your sanctimonious ’official statement’ actually. And I am not a royalist. But they have misjudged the mood of the country with this. Now is NOT the time you twats the bloody arrogance of them.

 

[Spilttea]

They need to diversify and change up their schtick.
They were of their time when it was funny to admit to day drinking and hating motherhood. A time that was basically lots of posh and privileged middle class former Londoners pretending their life went to pot after having kids.

Now all those babies are at primary/secondary, influencers are universally derided and even the most famous of the instamums are having to find another way to connect with their followers.

I’m not a Royalist but they should either have been respectful and if they couldn’t be respectful they should have shut the duck up and said nothing at all.