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12-02-2023, 05:58 PM
David Cohen
Fri, 10 February 2023 at 8:37 pm SGT
The cost of living crisis is having a deeply damaging impact on children’s play, with parents living on the breadline electing to cut back on children’s leisure activities, according to a west London community group.
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Faye tells her children: “If you’re cold, it’s bed-socks, dressing gowns and pyjamas.” Her strategy is “heat the person, not the room”. The only time they turn on the gas is to get hot water for the shower and washing up.
Unexpected expenses bring stress. “If one of my kids needs new trainers, it fills me with dread. Recently my 11-year-old lost his coat. I couldn’t afford a new one and shopped around for weeks until I found one at half-price for £9.”
Another parent whose children attend LCAT, Simone, 47, a single mother of six of whom three live at home, said her son, a bursary student at The Royal Ballet School, “constantly needs ballet shoes, leotards and tights, as well as money to travel and socialise”, but it is not cash she can lay hands on.
The part-time cleaner said: “I run out of money about ten days before I get paid at the end of the month and have to turn to my mum for help with basics like food shopping.
“I started using a food bank once a week, although I feel a bit guilty because there are people more in need. I told the children we can’t afford new clothes, that we now rely on charity shops.
“We don’t have freedom to replace things – like our washing machine broke down and we used our neighbour’s one until I saved enough to club together with my older kids to buy a new one for £400. It’s hand-to-mouth living with no buffer. It makes you anxious.”
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Jessica, 28, a care worker whose seven-year-old sister frequents LCAT, said: “We live five of us in a two-bedroom flat and I share a room with my sister. I worry that if somebody eats too much at dinner there won’t be enough to go around. I’d rather my little sister eats.
“She doesn’t want to stress me and her mum so she doesn’t eat much and she’s lost so much weight recently. You can see her ribcage. I make sure she eats more and that means I eat less. I had a cheeseburger from McDonald’s today. That’s my food for the day.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho...79786.html
Fri, 10 February 2023 at 8:37 pm SGT
The cost of living crisis is having a deeply damaging impact on children’s play, with parents living on the breadline electing to cut back on children’s leisure activities, according to a west London community group.
......
Faye tells her children: “If you’re cold, it’s bed-socks, dressing gowns and pyjamas.” Her strategy is “heat the person, not the room”. The only time they turn on the gas is to get hot water for the shower and washing up.
Unexpected expenses bring stress. “If one of my kids needs new trainers, it fills me with dread. Recently my 11-year-old lost his coat. I couldn’t afford a new one and shopped around for weeks until I found one at half-price for £9.”
Another parent whose children attend LCAT, Simone, 47, a single mother of six of whom three live at home, said her son, a bursary student at The Royal Ballet School, “constantly needs ballet shoes, leotards and tights, as well as money to travel and socialise”, but it is not cash she can lay hands on.
The part-time cleaner said: “I run out of money about ten days before I get paid at the end of the month and have to turn to my mum for help with basics like food shopping.
“I started using a food bank once a week, although I feel a bit guilty because there are people more in need. I told the children we can’t afford new clothes, that we now rely on charity shops.
“We don’t have freedom to replace things – like our washing machine broke down and we used our neighbour’s one until I saved enough to club together with my older kids to buy a new one for £400. It’s hand-to-mouth living with no buffer. It makes you anxious.”
......
Jessica, 28, a care worker whose seven-year-old sister frequents LCAT, said: “We live five of us in a two-bedroom flat and I share a room with my sister. I worry that if somebody eats too much at dinner there won’t be enough to go around. I’d rather my little sister eats.
“She doesn’t want to stress me and her mum so she doesn’t eat much and she’s lost so much weight recently. You can see her ribcage. I make sure she eats more and that means I eat less. I had a cheeseburger from McDonald’s today. That’s my food for the day.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho...79786.html
