Time and again you sit down to watch a program on TV about
benefits. Mostly you see drug addicts,
families with ten children, kids smoking at the age of 5 or something, and
single parents. Just to add to the scene they are trying to set it’s normally a
young single mum with a mouth that’s constantly being censored.
I am a young single mum. 24 year old (I have decided this will
now be my age forever, I really don’t want to be half way to 50) with a 7 year
old and 5 year old.
Watching these programs really irritates me. For a start, a
lot of young single mums are not even the tiniest bit similar to those shown on
TV. Secondly, yes most of us are unemployed but not like the way that young
single mum on TV can’t be bothered and is happy on benefits as long as she has
got her fags and alcohol. In fact it irritates me that there’s no documentary
on us more ambitious young single mums trying to take life head on. I think actually, if enough true research and
a little less brainwashing happened, the root cause of single parent
unemployment could be found and remedied. My unemployment is not through lack of
education or effort anyway.
So naturally I decided this year I am doing a dissertation
on it. I am a right fucking nut case for taking it on let me tell you (way too
much reading)! I want to argue from a legal perspective that single parents
should be a directly protected classification in the employment world, and a
category on par with LGBT and ethnic minorities in the whole diversity and
social inclusion policies. I know some people will read that and think that is
controversial, but regardless of sexual orientation or race, a single parent from
anywhere on the spectrum is statistically more likely to be, and remain
unemployed than two parent households,
or childless people (ONS website). As much as I feel this dissertation will
empower me and help me gain employment out of university hopefully, I wanted to
write more conversationally about it on here. Largely so I could rant too.
It’s sad really as well; single parents are the ones who
struggle the most to run a family off one income and probably need the
diversity boost more than anyone else.
Yet instead once their eldest turns 5 they are forced off the welfare
system (which is crap anyway hence me being at university) and into part times
jobs. It barely keeps milk in the fridge let alone a good standard of living
for your kids. You’re basically fucked. No one wants to hire you and the state doesn’t
want to help you either. So you end up mopping an off license floor for ten
hours a week.
Get a full time job I hear you say?
Yeh sure, when the kids start school at 9, finish at 6 (with
a hefty childcare bill to boot), and I don’t drive, and my works an hour away
this leaves me . . . . . 10.30-4.30 (you need to leave time to actually get rid
of the sweat, leave time for traffic etc etc). So let’s say that’s a generous
£7.00 ph job (but because it’s classed as part time you get awarded hardly any
childcare). But my childcare is 15.00 per child for 3 hours. Basically 4 of
those hours I work a day go’s on childcare. That leaves me £14 a day of my
wages. Shocking as shit on the wall. Basically working to pay childcare and
struggle more than anything. And that’s if
you manage to secure a place in a cheap after school club that runs for 3
hours. Otherwise you’re paying a childminder £7.00 per hour per child so then
you would have even less left.
Even more infuriating is this. Someone who has gone to
university worked real hard and smashed some good grades out against all
adversity. Yes I’m saying having two kids and a household to run by yourself
can be adversity because family life = DRAMA, when one is ill for a week there’s
illness for the other two in the
household for two more consecutive weeks and stuff like that. Team No sleep in
the literal sense unlike these students who say #teamnosleep just because they
went out partying from 10-4 then slept from 4-8, rocked up to lectures at 9,
went home to sleep some more at 11, woke up at 5 ate, read, showered and
repeat. They don’t know what no sleep is #justsaying #sorrynotsorry. Anyway
back to point, I have worked this hard for some childless person or two parent
person to get it because they are more flexible, other than that we're even on
paper probably.
The point I am making is, media sucks for portraying us to
be benefit wankers because were trash. Most of us are fucking superhuman, we
struggle, we cry, we face all the shit of a two parent family all by ourselves.
We get no rest. We carry on. And some of us are taking a shit stab at uni
knowing we’ve got more battles to fight out of uni because old charles from Oxshott
or something has no singular parent childcare issues (either because he has no
children or he has a wonderful partner to take the kids to school etc for
him), and so is flexible the fuckwit. And some are taking really shit pay, shit
reward /prospect jobs because they have no other option and are struggling
their tits off every day for the rest of their life as a single parent to just
afford to get by, but not without plenty of debt accumulation. I literally take
my hat off to those souls. You the real superhumans.
Anyway that is my rant over.
I hope to present a more legal based argument in my
dissertation with references and lots of clever shit.
And less swearing.
Peace out x
