Family who are 'too fat to work' say £22,000 worth of benefits is not enough - Telegraph


OMG i just about peed myself laughing. The only thing running in the family unfortunatly is a lot of bullshit, and lies, and possibly low IQ if they seriously believe this.

ughhh, ridiculous.

ahahahahahaha.

WOW.

Take a walk. Buy good things, there are SOME good processed foods that don't cost a bunch, if that's how they just must go about it *eye roll*. Apples are like what? 2$ for a dozen? Fruits not that expensive. Junk food is pricey too.

This story makes me sad.

It confirms the negative attitudes that mainstream culture has towards low-income and/or overweight people. Especially in a struggling economy, it's impossible to read this article and feel any sympathy or understanding for a family that appears to not just be happy depending on others for their welfare, but to expect more. The people are presented (through quotes) as lazy, careless, and unwilling to make the slightest effort to help themselves.

The unfortunate thing is there are a lot of people who WOULD help themselves if they had the right tools. And buying healthy foods on a TIGHT budget, can be very difficult. I've watched my own family struggle with it for years. I think buried underneath the sensationalized content of this news story, there are some legitimate points that could be addressed. Of course, responsible reporting doesn't rake in the readers, only highly polarizing, sensationalized junk does ("fat family demands cash for being fat").

I'd like it if the newspaper ran a sister article offering practical advice for people who are in similar positions. How to shop healthy on a budget, how to exercise on the cheap, etc. Yes, those tools are out there (most of us here have used them), but if a newspaper is willing to call out people for not doing all they can, they can also step up and provide some useful information.

I dont fully believe they'd help themselves if given the tools. There ARE free ways to help yourself, such as exercising outside and even making your own things up. You can get moving w/out the aid of money. You can eat healthy without spending loads of money, things like, a bag of chicken, around here it cost 6$ but it lasts a few days and a big bag of veggies is around 3$, that's 10$ that could feed the family for two nites. Bag of chips is around 3$, bag of french fries around 3$, fast food around here you can easily spend upwards of 10$ on one "meal". [that adds up, specially if you're paying 6 or 7$ on fast food, per person!] Water is free.

They have options. People like them have options. It's not impossible and I think it's a cop out that they are getting paid for being fat. Getting paid for say, medical issues is one thing, an understandable thing. But they seem to be making excuses as well.

my local newspaper runs articles about shopping healthy on budgets and how to exercise cheaper...they normally show up more often in the summer than during winter months because i can't remember the last time i've seen one to be honest. but i remember when i'd read the paper during work in the summer, there was an article or two, not only regarding adults, but for children too.

i think SOME families would help themselves if they had the right tools, but not all. and they have to want to help themselves, otherwise it's never gonna happen.

like the family in the article say that they cannot afford healthy food for it is too expensive, however, i'm assuming they probably own a television with at least basic cable or maybe more than that (premium + movie channels). if they were that concerned about their health, they could put that money towards healthy eating. that might be harsh, but that's my opinion.

PaperAirplanes: I'm definitely not saying the family from the article would help themselves if there were more tools available to them. For one thing, I don't know enough about them to make that assumption, and the way they were presented strongly suggests that's not the case.

But there are people in situations where tools AREN'T available to them. They don't know how to get started. And just focusing on a negative, sensationalized story like this one redirects attention from that fact.

Shep03: I don't disagree with you on any one point. And sure, some people would make use of more tools and some wouldn't. My beef with the article is that it doesn't acknowledge that lack of money can be a real barrier to a healthy lifestyle.

...

And in general, anytime I see a story that sensationalizes people in this way, it makes me sad. It's in the same vein as trash celebrity rags and TV programs that focus on presenting people in a way that affords the viewer/reader only one view – the view of looking down on someone else. It's pretty commonplace, and I realize my point of view is probably not shared by most others, but I feel like we'd all benefit if stories/programs were about educating and not just exploiting or sensationalizing.

It does make for interesting thread topics, though!

This family has combined incomes roughly 33% higher than U.S. poverty guidelines. Imagine if you had 10,000 extra dollars to spend this year?

I find the sliding 'pay per infliction' scale to be counterproductive and incentive-less for the Government to impose.

Two observations from the picture in the link: Mr Chawners wouldn't make the lap band list over here in the U.S. The family seems fairly well dressed and mostly proper an appearance. I don't see true suffrage in that picture. Maybe this is a U.K. equivalent for 'Poverty Poster Children' for reasonable press purposes?

It would take about 6 nanoseconds to find real poor, real obese Americans making the Chawners look like The Simpsons that they really are.

What a shitty mindset this family has formed.

oh wow. im just glad im not a citizen in their country, using my tax money to compensate them for being fat and deciding they are a-ok with it... i think this article wasnt sensationalized. i mean the quotes came from their mouths right? and i cant stand when people say they are fat because "its in their genes" thats the biggest load of bull i ever heard. ur big because you eat too much and dont exercise!! last summer on a talk show this 300 pound woman was claiming that she got fat from a spider bite. ReAaLLLy?????? like stop making up excuses, thats just pathetic

"Within the last nine years, I've more than doubled in size. I went from 290 pounds to 700 and change," says DeeDee, 47. Nine years ago, she was bitten by a brown recluse spider and says that contributed to her weight gain. "No matter what they treated it with, my leg got worse. My leg is so swollen and so painful I can't move it. The swelling got so bad that it compromised my circulation. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't walk. I had to give up work," DeeDee explains.



"A spider bite is a legitimate problem, but it doesn't justify a 400-pound weight gain," says Sherra, one of DeeDee's only friends who comes to visit her. "DeeDee is an overeater and always has been."



After DeeDee was incapacitated by the spider bite, her husband had to take on a second job, and her son and daughter had to take care of her. "I no longer was a mother and a worker and a wife. I've become a burden," DeeDee shares.



"The kids are just exhausted. They can't approach her without her asking for something," Sherra reveals. "They were really just children, so they started bringing her food trying to comfort her ... It turned into resentment. They share food instead of love. They stay in the house in a little cocoon, eat, and watch movies, and feel sorry for each other and get sicker and sicker."



"The only time I have for myself is school," says DeeDee's son, Sean, 22. His mom will call him when he is out and ask him to bring home food. "My mom has me buy a lot of things that we shouldn't have."



"Everything in the house is a snack. We have soda, cereal. We always have M&M'S available, Ritz crackers and huge blocks of cheese," says Jaime, DeeDee's 21-year-old daughter. "If I want to be by myself, she accuses me of not loving her. I resent her for that," Jaime reveals. "I focus on getting out of the house, even though my mom thinks I'm going to be here until I'm 26. I don't want to have to be her caretaker."


"My metabolism is so bad at this point that I hardly eat anything and I still don't lose weight," DeeDee says. "I'm a prisoner in my own home. That's really frightening." She says that she used to have a life, but not anymore. "I feel like I'm a rolling disease," she says. "I blame the spider."

Four more pages of the story at this link Dr. Phil.com

i saw the followup there Dr. Phil.com

I wonder if deep down she still says its the spiders fault? [i didnt read the entire article, just the first page] But at least she's taken the steps to get down in weight, I think she'll really realize how much it'll help her in the long run to keep losing!

Thanks for the follow up link, Liz. Congrats Dee Dee for coming to your senses and accepting your own reality.

I can't imagine facing your intervention on a national TV show but I guess that's what it took.

So now we have to get the Chawners over here for their own episode of Dr. Phil?

LOL thanks for finding that T2!! so it wasnt the magic potion in the spider after all that made her fat LOLOL reading that still made me feel bad for her though

If I find the damn spider that bit me I am suing the hell out of the government... Because this is getting ridiculous!