I think Ashley resents Alf massively. I think she resents him for existing & ruining her “perfect” single life & I think she resents him for being male (& hence not want she wanted).
I do think that on some level she loves him, but:-
*the nigh-constant complaints about having to re-purchase shoes & clothes as he grows (“No one told me they grow!” - presumably),
*the utter laziness & disinterest around his diet, *the loathing (& almost fear) of one-on-one Alfie & Mummy time: No Balls does bedtime, childminder, nanny & grandparents do interaction and food (she’s so keen to be rid of him that she drops him off at his childminders whilst he’s napping - attachment parenting has long since flown out of the window)
*the design of her house (including his playroom & bedroom) around her wishes / preferences: barely (if ever) taking his safety into account, *constantly referring to him in really unpleasant terms (most recently “little f*cker”),
*choosing (on purpose, surely) not to take him for any of his vaccinations,
*thinly disguised irritation at him daring to wake before she does (even though he barely seems to wake before 6am & often entertains himself in his death-trap cot as he’s learnt crying for Mama gets him nowhere) &
*her growing (?fabricated) list of injuries & “poor” treatment that befell her during labour.
I think she made a rod for her own back with the co-sleeping & breast feeding on demand: she’s far too proud & pleased with her “instinct” & research (a single parenting book) to have considered swapping to a “next to me” cot & combination feeding and her enjoyment (/obsession) with displaying her breasts knows no bounds.
In the end, her breast-feeding journey “petered out” in Mauritius when Alf “started to bite” - in reality, she missed Botox & even got that done before she’d finished with bf.
Ashley is incredibly fickle, she doesn’t persist with anything for long. She seems remarkably calm, even slightly pleased with “losing” 3 cats and re-homing Snoop. The irony being that if she hadn’t hoarded animals & treated them as child substitutes, they would have coped better with a babe in the house.
I think she’s had (maybe still has) PND but I also think she is bored (already) of being a parent.
She makes a strong display of “being a really good Mum” basically by getting pics of the two of them for the ‘gram but Alf rarely looks happy in her company.
I agree with others who’ve mentioned neglect. There are multiple forms of neglect: physical, medical, emotional, educational etc
A child doesn’t have to be barefoot & bruised for the term to apply.
Thank heavens for the grandparents, the nanny & childminder (“lovely day x”) and even for No Balls, but he should have been a lot more discerning about where he ejaculated.
big fan of hand me downs myself. I only had one child and he wore plenty of hand me downs. I gave everything I could away for years. But they all fit. I was a single Mum for years. If they didn’t fit my son I gave them to someone they did. I certainly wasn’t spending thousands in my own wardrobe / lifestyle. She’s a joke
