Doing Things Differently

I grew up in the kind of environment Jamie Oliver got himself into hot bother talking about last year. Coming from a less than perfect home herself, my mother was desperate for love and had a baby (me) at 19, then two more kids with a different man to my father. Uneducated, unqualified and with only the sporadic support of a partner, she spent my entire childhood on benefits.

Our electricity and telephone were forever getting cut off, yet she smoked 20 fags a day. She often 'didn't have the money' to buy fresh food and cook a proper meal, but in the next breath would spend her last £10 on a take-away. I'd lived in over a dozen houses all over the country by the time I left home, because those were the days that you could run up debts and leave them behind at the old address. You can imagine what going to eight different schools did for my education.

Back in the day when I was still reeling from all I went through as a child, I had many alcohol fuelled, self-righteous, heated debates making statements like the ones Jamie made. Always to people whose upbringings were positively Waltons-esque compared to mine, and had no idea how the other half had to live. Growing up living and breathing the poverty line, I made a decision very early on to be different from my family. I decided that whatever it took, when I had kids of my own, they would never ever have to experience what I did.

Almost ten years ago I severed ties with my mother, and family, and started forging my own way in the world. I have been a parent for almost five years now, and each and every day I stand by my vow. My children have the polar opposite upbringing to my own. They are growing up in a stable, secure environment. With two parents that love them and never put them in danger. Parents who are constantly striving for a better quality of life, and will do everything in their power to ensure they get it.

This article is a feature from the MUM.com Trusted Bloggers Club.

About the author

Mummy Tries

Mummy Tries is a happily married mum of two gorgeous (but minxy) girls, and has a baby boy due to join the party in February. She blogs about the ups and downs of parenting, and takes little trips down memory lane to a dysfunctional upbringing that is long behind her. She works part time, loves good food and is very partial to a decent boxed set.

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