uk – Page 2 – Mediocre Mum

Lets Talk Benefits

Last night, stemmed from a Blog Post ‘How (Not) to Survive on Benefits’ written by Nickie from Typecast, we had a Google+ Hangout talking about the UK Benefits system. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting but I did learn a few things.

I was hoping to chat more about people’s perceptions of people on benefits and the system. This is not something I have a strong opinion on but did have some predisposed ideas of people on benefits and wanted to work out, through discussion, how I felt about it all.

Is abuse as wide-spread as we think?

Prior to the discussion I did a bit of research and apparently the number of fraudulent claimants are a lot less than we think. One person, linked to the DLA said it was less than 1%. I found this very interesting and this supports the idea that the government and media are making us blame the poor labeling them as ‘scroungers’ to justify their upcoming benefit cuts.

The working poor

I also found it very interesting that a large majority of people on benefits are people, who are in fact working, and that their wages are not enough to survive on so they need to rely on benefits to make up this shortfall. Jax has written an interesting post about the need to look more at the working wage. I was stunned to hear what the minimum wage is.

As Jax said, we live in a civilized society and looking after our most vulnerable is reflective of this, I would never suggest getting rid of the benefits system, but it is there to help those genuinely in need and I do still think there is abuse.

How to encourage people back to work

Lynn made a very valuable comment, that we need to look more at child-care subsidies, I know many woman who have found that it’s not financially viable to go back to work after having kids due to the ridiculous cost of child-care. Wouldn’t it be better to give people incentives to go back to work? Why go back to work if you will be worse off?

But why do I feel so damn guilty about being middle class and continually found myself apologizing for the fact. This is not to say that we’ve not had times of trouble in the past and did call on the benefit system but only for a short period, while we got back on our feet and this is how I feel it should be used. It’s not a long-term solution bar people with illness and disabilities.

Role Models

We have worked hard to get to this point and possibly to the detriment of our daughter when she was little, I could have opted to stay at home and go on benefits but went back to work instead. Isn’t it better to show her that working hard is the answer and not to sit back and accept hand-outs. I grew up in a single parent house-hold with a hard-working mother that held down three jobs at times and never relied on the state or anyone else.

This is a huge topic to cover in one blog post but I would love to carry on this conversation. What do you think?

Flickr Photo Credit Maynard

Win a £50 Online Polarn O. Pyret Voucher (Children’s Fashion)

The Swedes are rather clever when it comes to all things design and this includes children’s fashion. I was recently sent a Fleece Jacket (£39) and Check Shirt (£11) for my 5 year old and I love, love, love them.

You could feel the quality as soon as I took it out of the bag. The shirt is so soft you can’t help but stroke it. My husband thinks she looks like a Lumber Jack, but what does he know! It looks great with black leggings and winter boots.

The attention to detail on the jacket is also impressive; everything from reflective strips, to little holes to put your thumb through to a Chin cover to protect against the zip from chafing.

Now it’s your chance! Win a £50 Online Polarn O. Pyret Voucher. Simply enter using the Rafflecopter Form Below. UK Entrants only please. A full list of Terms and Conditions are also available within the form. Closes 12:01 am on the 7th Oct 2012 (EST).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Brand Bails out Blogger!

I don’t want to dwell too much on the company that let me down but I’d rather spend my time ‘Bigging Up’ the company that came to my rescue.

Where it all went wrong

However, to better understand the situation you will need a bit of background. On a Friday night, I run a small Twitter quiz. A company offered me 3 prizes for the winners. The competition went well with a lot of exposure to the brand. I contacted the company to inform them of the winners but then it went deadly quiet for a few weeks. I emailed numerous times, tweeted and even tried to phone but there was no phone number on the website. I had a very bad feeling about it all.

The winners, were incredibly understanding and said ‘Chrissie, don’t worry about it, it’s fine’. But sorry, in my book, if I promise you something, I will deliver even if I have to pay for it myself. In the end, a light bulb went off and I thought. Why don’t a contact someone who offers a similar service and see if they would be willing to help me out of a pickle. So, I contacted a company that I’ve worked with on a couple of occasions (see picture), explained my plight and was fully expecting them to politely decline as it was in no way their problem.

Knight in Shining Armour

But when I opened up my email first thing in the morning, I was pleasantly surprised; there was a response from Mark from Hello Canvas offering to help out. Within 30 minutes the winners each had gift certificates for a photo on canvas with the size 16 x 24 inch/40 x 60 cm. As another blogger said ‘this speaks volumes for the company’s ethos’ and I can’t agree more.

I just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to Mark and the team at Hello Canvas for bailing me out of a tight spot and if you think they’re as fab as I do please feel free to tweet them @hellocanvas telling them how wonderful they are.

As for the other company, after a very harsh email from myself and a bit of pressure from a few of my twitter friends I did get a response and they did in the end uphold their end of the bargain. Apparently, they had an intern, who was responsible for this but has now been fired. They were very embarrassed by the whole situation, but in the end I still feel it’s the company’s responsibility. Sadly, I will not be able to recommend them in future.

Some may call it Glamping….

I’ve slept rough in a public park in Budapest, got eaten alive in a hammock in Honduras, have camped wild in Canada and I once woke up behind a chair in my sitting room; so I think I’ve done my fair share of roughing it.

So, when we were offered the chance, once I had a quick look at the website, to spend a weekend at Feather Down Farms we jumped at the chance.

For those ‘Camping Purists’ out there you may object to me calling this camping in any form as there was not a wet sock to be found and we didn’t have to sleep on the ground. Some would prefer if I called it glamping.

We received a very warm welcome at Lipley Farm in Shropshire, by Stephen the farmer. Who took time out of his busy schedule; they have 140 dairy cows he has to milk twice a day, to show us around. He can recognize each cow without even looking at their numbers.

We were absolutely stunned at the tents which sleep up to six comfortably and they were fully kitted out. The only thing we were missing was electricity and an oven glove.

Shortly after we settled in, the Farmer asked if we’d like to see a newborn calf. I was thinking a couple of days old, but in fact, it had been born about 5 minutes before. We got to watch it try and find its feet for the first time.

Every morning our daughter got to feed the baby lambs in the enclosure near the tents and we collected our own eggs, some of which were blue, from the chicken coup.

One of our highlights was the tour of the Dairy parlour; I was clever enough not to go down as I could see the danger of standing at the back end of 14 well fed cows. However, hubby was not and ended getting a bit closer to nature than he would have liked.

As I mentioned, there was no electricity (but I did find a sneaky plug socket in the Larder to charge the iphone and ipad) the only source of heat was the wood burning stove, and I would be lying to you if I said it wasn’t cold. In fact, it was freezing, we could see our breath when going to bed at night, but it was April. They do supply bedding but we had brought our own Duvet, which is heavy enough to smother a small child and were pleased we brought it.

All our cooking was done on the wood burning stove. The thought of this at first was daunting, but we quickly adapted and cooked everything from a full English breakfast to Sausage and Smash to a Sunday Roast. My only suggestion would be too take something with you, that only needs heating on the first night, as you can’t check in till 4pm and you may not be able to get the stove up to temperature quick enough. We brought a Chilli from home.

The weather wasn’t brilliant, but it didn’t put a damper on it. We were happy to sit back, relax and enjoy the farm. We really didn’t feel the need to go beyond the farm. But there was a lovely wood down the road that we went for an umbrella covered stroll in and we also found a pub near a canal for a sneaky half which would be amazing in the sunshine.

Overall, we would thoroughly recommend a weekend at Feather Down Farms and a huge thank you to Stephen, Tracey and the boys for a wonderful weekend. We will be back.

Disclosure: The weekend was compliments of Feather Down Farms.

Surviving School Holidays in St Albans

As it’s school holidays, I’m just been reminding myself of things to do with kids in or near St Albans. Thought it may be of interest to you as well.

Heartwood Forest – in Sandridge. Over the next 12 years the Woodland trust is going to be putting this forest back to its former glory. To date they have planted over 300,000 trees. However, there are still 4 areas of ancient forest left which are great for Den Building and the Bluebells are in full bloom.

Kite Flying Dunstable Downs – On the road to Whipsnade Zoo. You can buy a kite for about £8 in the gift shop if you don’t have one. Dress up warm!

Butterfly World – people have mixed feelings about Butterfly World. I personally love it but I’m fully aware that it’s a work in progress, the Dome isn’t built yet and there is just one small house of butterflies. We love running around the gardens, the playground is brilliant and check out the Ant house. In April, entry is only £5. Bring a lunch to keep costs down.

RAF Museum Hendon – I’m not a plane enthusiast but it’s a great day out for the kids and it’s FREE, well except for the parking. There is a place indoors that you can bring a packed lunch.

St Albans South Signal Box – this may sound dull but I promise you it’s very interesting. It’s free, the gardens are lovely and you can get a cuppa. Next Open Day is Sunday 8^th of April 2012.

And a few other random free things to do with kids in or near St Albans.