What do you think should be done about food poverty?

Galen Who is a fat finger?

'Wanton stupidy' ?? Please have the courage to tell us who is being 'wantonly stupid'?

Me! I typed you at rather you are

That's ' who's a fat finger'

That was to absent

Yes. I'd like to know to whom, or to whose post absent was referring.

State any views you like jingl but be prepared to back them up with evidence. I have never seen any evidence that children with loving parents will never turn to drugs, or that enough love in a family guarantees that children will not grow up to be selfish or uncaring. They're just sweeping statements.

I think it's time I went to bed. Had a very difficult tribunal with an obviously previously undiagnosed psychotic schizophrenic and a judge who wanted to question where the CPN hadn't wanted to go!
(I kicked him under the table) but don't quote me!

I should have thought it was blatantly obvious. However, I suppose it depends on your definition. Perhaps some people consider that continuously making assertions that contradict every known piece of evidence is a sign of intelligent discussion. Please yourself.

Is that to me? absent

I will, thanks. You may disagree with a poster, absent, but to dismiss their views as 'wanton stupidity' is downright rude.

I'm off to bed too. What a plonker you can be Absent

I agree with absent. I too find it irritating when people make sweeping generalisations about matters that are complex and which don't have easy answers.

Surely it is not that difficult to understand that if you are contributing to a site containing a large number of people, many of whom will have, or will have had, some personal or family experience of: unemployment, debt, problems with children, alcoholism/substance abuse, etc. etc., you should have some very firm evidence to support the contention that such problems are, in effect, their own fault.

Glass, your comment at 21.08, I know that Hexham has a food bank. That's what I found appalling, that an area considered so wealthy, like Morpeth, should have a food bank. One of my husband's cousins lives in Hexham - the wealthier end of the spectrum.
Jingle I never even knew my son smoked until I found out it was cannabis. He was 18. He stopped taking drugs when he watched a friend come off heroin. Swears he never tried it, and we believed him. He's a secondary teacher now, and can always tell when one of his pupils has tried cannabis. Does that make us parents who do not love our children?

Can I please refer you all to my post of Thu 23-Jan-14 17:34:04.

Haven't a clue what sort of a parent you were durhamjen.

Can't be bothered to read anymore. And will try very hard to not post any more on the thread. (It wasn't me who turned it into all about me again )

Thanks Ana, but you are on a losing streak with this lot.

Jinglbellsfrocks I am pleased and happy with how my children and grandchildren have turned out also, why can't we be pleased with our parenting skills.

ninny, you can. I think others, including jingl, are too.

Nothing wrong with being happy. Taking all the credit is another matter. Particularly when it is combined with implying that parents are to blame for children making wrong choices, or becoming addicted.
Good parenting helps. As does luck, economic circumstances, the behaviour of the other parent and the part of the country you grow up in.

I understand where you're coming from, jings. My father had a very brusque approach to illegal drugs. Part of it, I'm sure, was a lifetime of seeing students wreck their lives by drugs. He wrecked his too, to some extent, because he was addicted to nicotine. If he jadn't been, he might well have been alive now.

If he had ever discovered one of his kids using heroin, he'd have called the police and got us charged with possession and we'd have had to deal with the consequences. So would he

I'm not sure that's what I'd do. I'm not sure I even think possession and use of heroin should be illegal. Making such drugs illegal just seems to fuel the criminal trade in them and people get rich while wrecking lives.

Confused? Me? You bet.

Did anyone mention taking all the credit, jess? I suppose one post did sort of imply something like that but i don't think one needs to read too much into that.

Regardless of background, good/bad parenting or where one lives, the key to addiction is having an addictive personality and this applies to alcoholism or drug abuse the difference being one is illegal which causes so much criminal activity the other one is legal and taxable and anyone can walk into a supermarket and buy the alcohol of their choice.

Anyone choosing to take drugs or alcohol are taking the same gamble of becoming addicted.

What about parents who have several children who are successful, loving non drug takers and one who is addicted, unemployed and always falling out with the parents?

I know of several families like this. If it's all down to the parenting, are those parents good or bad ones?

Two sons, one of whom tried cannabis, one of whom didn't.
I reckon that makes us what I've always thought, good enough parents.

I am interested as to what actually qualifies someone as "a good parent".

Are we basing this on How good a job little Johnny now has? How much he/she earns? How good looking they are? Clean and tidy? Taking or not taking drugs? Smokes? Drinks?................

For goodness sake.

I think it's fine to take credit for doing one's best as a parent. That doesn't mean one has got it all right, or that one's offspring are perfect, just that on the whole one did what seemed best at the time. Most parents want to do and try to do the best for their kids. Most parents love their kids. Those parents are good parents even when things go wrong.

We seem to have strayed from food poverty and what to do about it but I think most of us agree that blaming people for being poor doesn't seem to help much.