Fuel And Kids

[Paigntonian]

BBC Newsnight quotes someone saying kids that grow up in 'cold' homes and 'five times' more likely to experience mental health problems than children who grow up in 'warm homes. If that is true it must have been true in 1945, in 1990 or 2019...

[Zacs-Master]

When did you grow up, paignton?

[Paigntonian]

Zacs: Is that the best you can do?

[Zacs-Master]

I just thought your answer might answer a wholelotta questions.

[sandyRoe]

Maybe 'cold' and 'warm' refers to the love in the home rather than the temperature.

[bobbie22]

When I was a kid it was so cold in our house I used to get dressed under the blankets on the bed. We had one small coal fire in the living room. It was the same for everyone living around us We also had ice inside the Windows.

[ladybirder]

No central heating when I grew up. Bobbie we had ice on the inside of the windows but I don't remember it happening a lot. Always a big fire going in the living room though.

[Gromit]

I cannot see temperature in the home making much or any difference to the education of a young child.
But, if the family cannot afford heat, then they probably cannot afford books, and paper and pens.

[choux]

The "someone" Paigntonian mentioned is Alice Wiseman, Director of Public Health, Gateshead and she definitely was referring to the energy price hikes.

[jno]

are you suggesting it's not true of any of them? You may be right, but do you have any evidence?

[david small]

Raised in the slums of Brum. We couldn’t afford ice on our windows.

[tonyav]

Yo shudda moved to affluent Walsall then, david small ;-)

[Canary42]

I think that waking up to ice on the windows was quite a common occurrence for those of us who grew up in the Forties.

[Sam1960]

And the sixties Canary, remember it well.

[jno]

ohhhh we used to DREAM of livin' in a slum! Woulda' been a palace to us

[Patsy33]

Yes, I remember ice on inside of windows. I cant remember feeling particularly cold. My sister and I shared a double bed for a while, and Mum always had plenty of blankets on our bed and nice warm flannelette sheets. She would sometimes bring in a two bar electrical heater and put it on for half an hour.

[bobbie22]

I liked to hear about people living in same conditions as me. I am not in the least ashamed of it, in fact I am proud. I had enough to eat and I went to grammar school. I am still here at 80. I was brought up in South Wales

[choux]

Ice on the inside of windows - definitely, and cold lino on the bedroom floors didn't help. But surely this beggars the question - how is our mental health?

[barry1010]

Maybe it's not so much the temperature of the house. If parents suddenly can't afford to heating there is going to worry, tension. Other things will go by the wayside, too, maybe the usual expensive Christmas present, the extra curricular activities.
As a child it can be hard to cope with, especially if your mates don't seem to be in the same boat.
The cold house could be the obvious symptom of a family in crisis. Nobody likes change, especially for the worse

[Gromit]

ABers go into Monty Python sketch mode.

[ToraToraTora]

Load of old pony, we never had any heating but a fire in the front room when I was a saucepan. We used to get ice on the inside in the bedrooms.