J.K. Rowling writes about what it was like to be a single mom . . .

[jld]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7096786.ece

[RoughCollie]

Good for her! I like what she had to say.

[lmrich]

Thank you for posting this. I am glad that she has elected to stay in England and pay the higher taxes rather than skip out to a tax free island.

[6packofun]

I like the term "lone parents" much better than "single parents", actually! The latter has always sort of implied to me that the person chose singlehood in a somehow cavalier way, which is NOT the case. (I'm not sure where I get that impression, though, knowing that it's not accurate?)

 

"Lone" really tells it like it is. Alone. On their own. Lone Ranger parenting!

 

Thanks for sharing the article.

[LibraryLover]

I think she is one heck of a woman. She seems very introspective and thoughtful.

[Murphy101]

Well done!

[Belacqua]

I especially like the "it's the money" paragraph. Cuts through a lot of garbage, that does.

[ColoradoMom]

Well I certainly had a different take on that. She comes off to me as a) bitter and b) defending the "welfare state" as necessary, which completely repulses me.

 

She was a single mom for 4 years and suddenly she's some kind of expert? Puh-lease. :thumbdown:

 

The one thing she doesn't promote enough is how she took responsibility for herself and wrote the books. Maybe if more people took that message away from her tirade instead of "How dare those rich white men take away our welfare state" then Britain would be in a much better position going forward.

[Impish]

4 yrs of being a single parent are 4 long hard years. I was a 'lone' parent for 10 yrs, with 2 kids before marrying Wolf.

 

I know what its like to go to bed sick-scared, to watch the kids eat, claiming you're full because there's nothing left.

 

I've debated btwn buying milk or bread.

 

One year we skipped Easter because I had not an extra cent.

 

As a society, we seem to need someone to be 'better than'. That's the first thing that needs to change. Until then, childhood poverty will never change. Too many fingers pointing downwards.

 

I can remember getting in crap for working 3 jobs. I wasn't around enough for my kids. But giving up a job meant welfare. Its a darned if you do, darned if you don't.

 

Not to mention the nastiness from others, esp women. Its as though a single mom is easy and carries a mattress on her back. *snort* A single mom already knows how hard things can be, and is probably LESS likely to date indiscriminately. Single Moms know what can happen if the condom breaks, etc.

[ColoradoMom]

Yeah - I've been a single parent too - I'm no stranger to the Free Turkey line at Thanksgiving and all the other things that go along with it. But you can be a victim and wait for the New Prince Charming (Social Welfare State) or you can pick yourself up and write and sell some books and make your fortune (Capitalism).

 

It's a good thing Rowling decided to do the latter - now too bad she doesn't better promote the individual responsibility and capitalistic decisions that saved her from her dire circumstances and quit with the class warfare stuff.

 

That article is not about her time as a single mother, it's a political pot shot at the new government's plan to cut welfare benefits because they can't afford them.

[justamouse]

she's pretty darned awesome.

 

have you hear her Harvard 2008 commencement speech? THE FRINGE BENEFITS OF FAILURE..here it is on TED

 

http://www.ted.com/talks/jk_rowling_the_fringe_benefits_of_failure.html

 

again, she's pretty darned awesome

[Mrs Mungo]

Yeah - I've been a single parent too - I'm no stranger to the Free Turkey line at Thanksgiving and all the other things that go along with it. But you can be a victim and wait for the New Prince Charming (Social Welfare State) or you can pick yourself up and write and sell some books and make your fortune (Capitalism).

 

It's a good thing Rowling decided to do the latter - now too bad she doesn't better promote the individual responsibility and capitalistic decisions that saved her from her dire circumstances and quit with the class warfare stuff.

 

That article is not about her time as a single mother, it's a political pot shot at the new government's plan to cut welfare benefits because they can't afford them.

 

She would not have been able to write those books if she had been working two minimum wage jobs instead of relying on welfare while she wrote. She used she system as intended-as a temporary help while you set yourself up for something better.

[Shawna in Texas]

 

That article is not about her time as a single mother, it's a political pot shot at the new government's plan to cut welfare benefits because they can't afford them.

 

I found it to be her critique of rewarding married folks with a tax break, but further showing the ridiculousness of "it's the message not the money". There can always be valid arguments on who should fairly receive tax breaks, but for it to be a "message" is completely insulting to any lone parent that is struggling.

[Rivka]

She would not have been able to write those books if she had been working two minimum wage jobs instead of relying on welfare while she wrote. She used she system as intended-as a temporary help while you set yourself up for something better.

 

:iagree:

 

Also: "Hungry? Needy? Unable to make ends meet, with small children to support? Write and have published a lengthy series of books which capture the imagination of half the population of the world!" doesn't seem like a very scale-able solution.

[justamouse]

She would not have been able to write those books if she had been working two minimum wage jobs instead of relying on welfare while she wrote. She used she system as intended-as a temporary help while you set yourself up for something better.

 

:iagree:

[Murphy101]

Yeah - I've been a single parent too - I'm no stranger to the Free Turkey line at Thanksgiving and all the other things that go along with it. But you can be a victim and wait for the New Prince Charming (Social Welfare State) or you can pick yourself up and write and sell some books and make your fortune (Capitalism).

 

It's a good thing Rowling decided to do the latter - now too bad she doesn't better promote the individual responsibility and capitalistic decisions that saved her from her dire circumstances and quit with the class warfare stuff.

 

That article is not about her time as a single mother, it's a political pot shot at the new government's plan to cut welfare benefits because they can't afford them.

 

I disagree. And it's lame to say they can't afford welfare benefits but they can afford to "send a message" :001_huh:

 

That's not a pot shot, that's just logic. Maybe if they weren't twiddling about spending money like that, they wouldn't need to make cuts to more important basic needs.

 

I don't see her not promoting individual responsibility or capitalistic decisions. In fact, she gives herself as an example of how the welfare system combined with that is exactly what she needed to better her life.

 

Now what I find interesting is that two months before she got her book deal, she would have been deemed a drain and waste on society.

 

We could, and sadly many do, say the same about anyone who pursues a typically not very lucrative career.

[jld]

4 yrs of being a single parent are 4 long hard years. I was a 'lone' parent for 10 yrs, with 2 kids before marrying Wolf.

 

I know what its like to go to bed sick-scared, to watch the kids eat, claiming you're full because there's nothing left.

 

I've debated btwn buying milk or bread.

 

One year we skipped Easter because I had not an extra cent.

 

As a society, we seem to need someone to be 'better than'. That's the first thing that needs to change. Until then, childhood poverty will never change. Too many fingers pointing downwards.

 

I can remember getting in crap for working 3 jobs. I wasn't around enough for my kids. But giving up a job meant welfare. Its a darned if you do, darned if you don't.

 

Not to mention the nastiness from others, esp women. Its as though a single mom is easy and carries a mattress on her back. *snort* A single mom already knows how hard things can be, and is probably LESS likely to date indiscriminately. Single Moms know what can happen if the condom breaks, etc.

 

 

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

[Catherine]

What I don't understand is why you don't believe a person can be on welfare and "taking personal responsibility." Why must those things be mutually exclusive? Would you say someone who got a lot of help from a charitable organization was not "taking personal responsibility"? Or is the problem not the person who is being helped, but the people who are paying for that help? Is your gripe that our taxes pay for food so that people don't starve, and you'd rather they work at McDonald's than go on welfare and write a novel? I'm honestly curious.

 

Having known many women personally who relied on welfare after leaving abusive or alcoholic husbands, I have difficulty seeing any reasonable alternative. The idea that the British government would pay working class people a pittance to stay married is comical on so many levels-not the least of which is that it shows the government believes they are idiots!

[Murphy101]

you'd rather they work at McDonald's than go on welfare and write a novel?

 

The irony here is that unless UK is vastly different than the USA, probably darn near every McD employee is on some form of welfare. It's not like that pays enough to actually live off of.