Either Mr F and I have gone desperately wrong in our parenting methods, or Young Miss Fozzy is a freak. She's never been the little despot which this woman insists is the norm. Clearly we have terrorised her into submission by failing to spend a fortune on clothes for her and disgracefully omitting to put forward the Mail's sidebar heroines as role models.

I knew this would be Angela Epstein before I clicked the link. I think she writes an article about how awful her children are every six months. She does seem to single out the daughter though. Poor kid - she's been featured in this thread before.

She has form, in April there was another story about her relationship with her daughter

The top rated comments should have given her a warning about the parents' parental skills....

The problem to me seems to be not that the husband dotes on his little girl but that he is undermining his wife's authority and rewarding the child for bad behaviour. This will lead to big problems down the line.
- Jennifer, Hove, 4/4/2012 23:39
Click to rate Rating 1213Report abuse
The issue shouldn't be that he loves their daughter more, it should be that he doesn't support her in disciplining her.
- murph, Manc, 5/4/2012 2:28
Click to rate Rating 943Report abuse
This family set-up is actually dysfunctional, not an inevitability. The child is spoiled and undisciplined, and the husband should never take the child's side over the mother's in front of the child.
- Ella, Australia, 5/4/2012 5:37
Click to rate Rating 802Report abuse
Daddy's rewarding his little girl for being manipulative. She'll turn into a HORRIBLE woman & she'll never be happy. Way to go, Daddy.
- cha cha, The Town that Time Remembered, 5/4/2012 7:00
Click to rate Rating 722Report abuse
There's something pretty disturbing about all this.
- anon, anon, 4/4/2012 22:55
Click to rate Rating 642Report abuse
Perhaps her daughter has Samantha Brick powers
- Serena, Australia, 5/4/2012 3:48
Click to rate Rating 599Report abuse
As a father of a daughter, I can tell you your husband is not being a proper father at all. I would be very careful. By the sounds of it, without fatherly discipline and him giving you support, your daughter will only become more of a brat.
- londonwjb, London, 5/4/2012 7:28
Click to rate Rating 589

Mail journalist seeks to exploit child even before it is born.

Why won't women give me a seat on the bus? At eight months pregnant Antonia Hoyle has been horrified by the unchivalrous behaviour of her own sex

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2227886/Why-wont-women-seat-bus-At-months-pregnant-Antonia-Hoyle-horrified-unchivalrous-behaviour-sex.html


So Mail journalist who has made a career out of bitching about other women is now surprised that other women are not kind or considerate towards her.

_________________
www.newshuddlines.blogspot.com

Perhaps it's her entitled attitude. A bloke on my tube gave up his seat to a pregnant woman today and she didn't even acknowledge him. Courtesy works both ways. And tbh, in London often people don't look at other people on public transport and may not even notice if someone is pregnant. Personally I will happily give up my seat for a pregnant woman but only if I notice her or she asks

Or maybe some of the other women on the bus are pregnant too. Antonia isn't the only woman ever to be pregnant, although she seems to think she is.

This sums up her attitude



Well, that's because they probably were, to anyone except you.

Worst analogy of the week award goes to

_________________
Sick Left-wing Zealot.

If this incident even occurred, what do you suppose would have happened if a woman had been "chivalrous" and given her seat up? I'd expect an article moaning about unfeminine behaviour and feminism hurting women, making them feel compelled to do stereotypically masculine things like holding doors and giving up seats. It's a win-win situation for the Mail.

It's also a good opportunity to drive readers into a "what about the MEN?" frenzy, as we can see in the comments.

And nobody asked him to move his bag?

I really don't recognise any of this. I live in London, gave birth earlier this year, and commuted all over the place on public transport - tube and bus - until 10 days before I popped. In nearly all cases people gave up their seats (and I thanked them profusely). Yes, on the odd occasion you'd see people drop eye contact when I waddled on the bus and eyed the priority seats. It was cold, wet and crowded, and I can't entirely blame them. Only once did I have to stand in the middle of a tube carriage and declare "I'm 7 months pregnant, can I please sit down?' And I got a seat immediately. In all other cases I was treated with courtesy and didn't have to ask. People are generally very accommodating when you're pregnant. Particularly you look like a deranged weeble who could topple over on their shopping at any moment.

What's really helpful is that Tfl give free ' baby on board' badges to pregnant women which makes their condition pretty obvious. This woman makes no mention of using one. The one reason why people will hesitate to offer a seat to a possibly pregnant woman is that, if she's not wearing the badge, there's a very good chance you'll be offering your seat to an overweight woman rather than someone who's with child. No one wants to publicly declare that their fellow commuter is a chubster.

In my experience women were slightly more likely to offer their seats than men - I don't think men are any less considerate, but women are possibly more alert to pregnant commuters. Men are slightly more likely to help you with a pram.

What doesn't help chivalry in general is when you get scenarios like the one I witnessed once, where a miserable old codger ambled onto a busy tube with no difficulty, homed in on the one black guy in a priority seat (walking past other, closer priority sears to get to him), and proceeded to berate him until he got up. He then sat down for one fucking stop before getting off - in doing so fairly obviously blocking the route of the chap who'd got up originally (and throwing in another moan for good measure) so he couldn't get back to his seat before someone getting on the other end of the carriage did.

I've rarely witnessed such shitty behaviour, and I suspect that the fact the bloke looked like Norman Tebbitt was no coincidence. In fact the only other time that springs to mind was when I saw a guy shove past a pregnant woman (admittedly not very pregnant, but still obviously with passenger) when getting on a commuter train to ensure he got a seat. That was one Simon Heffer.

I found when pregnant or coping with small children that in general someone would assist, albeit not necessarily immediately. Women tended to be better than men. I can well remember standing in a tube carriage at 7 months + with the seats almost completely occupied by men studying their Evening Standards with rabid intensity to avoid acknowledging the dreadful pregnant woman. Eventually a woman sitting right at the other end asked loudly if I would like a seat, I said yes, and as we swapped places we each made sure to brush "accidentally" and forcefully up against each Evening Standard as we passed. It must be said, however, that this was a long time ago and in general it seems to me that if anything attitudes have improved since then.

Un-bloody-believable.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... y-boy.html


The fragrant Ms Walker is, btw, Mrs Giles Coren. They're obviously well-matched. I feel sorry for the daughter as well. God help her if she ever breaks out from the 1950s gender role.

Nearing 1,000 comments and it's still only mid-afternoon. Job done.

This really goes to show how absurd and harmful the focus on the gender of an unborn child is. The parents apparently have no preferences regarding any other aspect of their child but its gender (and, usually, non-disability). The whole supermarket mentality — I want this one, not that one — leads them to feel disappointed by their child before it's even left the womb.

That said, in a year or two I expect Walker to get back to us with an 'I thought I hated boys, but my adorable wee son has converted me' follow-up.

at least she'll have a nice aunt and uncles house to bolt to.

_________________
i have an art blog: http://procrastinationathon.blogspot.com/
and a review blog: http://blindwithwoodenhands.blogspot.com/
double blog! what does it mean?

When the one man in your life is Giles Coren, maybe that's understandable.