Roadside Mum #6 It is immoral to charge me for my own victimisation

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HotesTilaire said:
Yes, post-exertion malaise, the totally disproportionate crash you get hours or days after doing too much.
Nobody is perfect, but I would never schedule her events for today all on the same day. God knows what she’s been up to already to cause this BEFORE a stupidly busy day.
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I see - I have a good friend with Fibromyalgia and I have seen first hand the lengths she had to go to to maintain a job and it is usually at the expense of all the nice things she would like to be doing.

I will never get my head around her having “a busy week” with the non essentials at the expense of her kids not having lunch made or getting to school on time.

I don’t believe more than 10% of it to be fair but still - she is the exact sort that make Lee Anderson look viable with his rants about veg gardens being their food bank and working three jobs to keep off benefits. As I said in the Bex thread. She gives decent folk a bad name .☹️
 
Yeah, and pacing/PEM can be loaded with guilt (it’s your own fault for doing X the other day! You need to manage it better…) but F me, even her plans for today were ridiculous, enough to land her in bed for a week.

ETA for fatigue sufferers - Classic Pacing is a really good book https://me-pedia.org/wiki/Classic_Pacing_for_a_Better_Life_with_ME

Having kids does make pacing kind of impossible I guess
 
God, it's not hard for a pathologically online being to sort.

School meals - mygov.scot

Apply for free school meals
You can apply for free school meals on your local council's website. You may be able to apply for help with school clothing costs at the same time.


She's got an automatic entitlement and a random selection of councils give links to direct online claims for that and school uniform grants.


We'd have also heard all about it if she hadn't received the summer holiday support from the school.
 
Hello friends

Popping into this thread from my usual hangout at the Jack Monroe forum just to say that I see Roadside Mum still doesn't seem to have made progress with her book.

I tentatively approached her months and months ago about contributing to that project. I have personal experience of living on a low income, navigating the benefits system and living in unsuitable housing etc.

RSM is, from interactions with her and with Unbound, very clearly middle class and university educated. Any traveller heritage, if any at all, is heavily diluted by generations of intermarriage. My best guess is that she is/was a hippy chick who hit the road in the noughties for adventure or to opt out. I think, if she was a travelling eco-warrior, we'd know about it and she'd be much less likely to tweet endlessly about cars, consumer goods and holidays.

She was also very cagey about her real name and I get the impression that Britain is a pseudonym. She also refused to say where in the country she lived -- I only asked in a conversational "get to know you" kind of way -- and she made a strong allusion to being a victim of DV who was on the run from an abuser. Of course, this could be a ruse and a convenient technique to shut down any probing questions about who she really is. All in all, I didn't feel confident at the time that she knew what she was doing with the book and I thought her unwillingness to disclose her real identity to me (offline and with a confidentiality agreement) was sketchy AF.

Anyway, I ultimately decided not to contribute to her book for reasons. It looks like a dead duck and I don't really get why Unbound are still trying to flog it. They were asking for contributors just this week on the X site. So much has changed around poverty in the last year or two and my personal view is that this book is a dud. They should call it a day and refund all the donors who've forked out so far.
 
MurielSnark said:
Hello friends

Popping into this thread from my usual hangout at the Jack Monroe forum just to say that I see Roadside Mum still doesn't seem to have made progress with her book.

I tentatively approached her months and months ago about contributing to that project. I have personal experience of living on a low income, navigating the benefits system and living in unsuitable housing etc.

RSM is, from interactions with her and with Unbound, very clearly middle class and university educated. Any traveller heritage, if any at all, is heavily diluted by generations of intermarriage. My best guess is that she is/was a hippy chick who hit the road in the noughties for adventure or to opt out. I think, if she was a travelling eco-warrior, we'd know about it and she'd be much less likely to tweet endlessly about cars, consumer goods and holidays.

She was also very cagey about her real name and I get the impression that Britain is a pseudonym. She also refused to say where in the country she lived -- I only asked in a conversational "get to know you" kind of way -- and she made a strong allusion to being a victim of DV who was on the run from an abuser. Of course, this could be a ruse and a convenient technique to shut down any probing questions about who she really is. All in all, I didn't feel confident at the time that she knew what she was doing with the book and I thought her unwillingness to disclose her real identity to me (offline and with a confidentiality agreement) was sketchy AF.

Anyway, I ultimately decided not to contribute to her book for reasons. It looks like a dead duck and I don't really get why Unbound are still trying to flog it. They were asking for contributors just this week on the X site. So much has changed around poverty in the last year or two and my personal view is that this book is a dud. They should call it a day and refund all the donors who've forked out so far.
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BIB: she has, in fairness, been completely open about the fact that Louisa Britain is a pseudonym as much as RoadsideMum is ever since she started using it and she has been consistent with the reasoning being she’s got an abusive ex-partner. That reason may be a lie but she’s been very open about it not being her name.

I agree it’s time to call it a day on the project though, it’s clearly not happening.
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CabalofBolorneaise said:
BIB: she has, in fairness, been completely open about the fact that Louisa Britain is a pseudonym as much as RoadsideMum is ever since she started using it and she has been consistent with the reasoning being she’s got an abusive ex-partner. That reason may be a lie but she’s been very open about it not being her name.

I agree it’s time to call it a day on the project though, it’s clearly not happening.
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Quoting myself like a ninny to add evidence she’s called it a pen name before
 

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CabalofBolorneaise said:
BIB: she has, in fairness, been completely open about the fact that Louisa Britain is a pseudonym as much as RoadsideMum is ever since she started using it and she has been consistent with the reasoning being she’s got an abusive ex-partner. That reason may be a lie but she’s been very open about it not being her name.

I agree it’s time to call it a day on the project though, it’s clearly not happening.
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Quoting myself like a ninny to add evidence she’s called it a pen name before
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Yeah to be fair she used a different L name right at the start (Linda? Lindsey?) and just added Britain as a surname to her fake name. It’s absolutely fair enough if you don’t want to use your name in the media. However she does get people cash app ing her a lot…

Was she engaging @MurielSnark and into the book project, or just hoping to sadfish cash from you?
 
HotesTilaire said:
Yeah to be fair she used a different L name right at the start (Linda? Lindsey?) and just added Britain as a surname to her fake name. It’s absolutely fair enough if you don’t want to use your name in the media. However she does get people cash app ing her a lot…

Was she engaging @MurielSnark and into the book project, or just hoping to sadfish cash from you?
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Hi @HotesTilaire

She was enthusiastic about the book project but was also very vague about what was needed. For several reasons, I thought it was dodgy and that they were expecting a lot from contributors who were being asked to submit work without being formally commissioned and the fees were very low. There wasn't clarity about how the editing would work or what the overall shape of the book was -- I foresaw being asked to do a lot of extra work that would be unpaid and that didn't seem right to me, especially since it was to be about poverty.

I didn't like the fact that she was vague about who she really was and it made me feel that I wasn't going to be necessarily as well looked after as I would want on a collaborative project. I think my instincts were right now that it turns out the whole thing is still not complete.

She comes across well, is really well spoken and personable. But also seems chaotic and disorganised. I've seen her picking fights online, too, and I'm glad I stayed away, honestly.

Writing a personal testimony about one's poverty is very tough and potentially traumatising and I didn't trust her or Unbound to look after my best interests on such a project. That's just my opinion but I feel like it's been born out over the process of this non-book.

Luckily I don't have any spare cash so I didn't lose anything and I haven't ever given RSM money.
 
A reminder that this book is now coming close to its two year anniversary of launch (October to be precise).

And not a whisper of an update for months. If the book by Hattie Gladwell is anything to go by, there will be another year or so before it disappears like a puff of smoke. That’s certainly more likely than it coming to fruition.

I just had a look at Unbounds latest tweets - some really strong stuff. I bet they rue the day they ever had contact from Christ only knows what she calls herself. Still never going to buy any of their products though. They have lent credence to a horror show in RSM, and reduced their own to naught in my eyes.
 
FlashBoof said:
She is no doubt volcanic with jealousy and rage every time someone gets some traction or engagement on HER picture (TM). She was so very very ill a couple of days ago that she could barely function. Stil raged about this though. And again.

Still, at least she has the kids to take her rage out on. 😞
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Surely if the point was “awareness” she’d be pleased about the picture being shared, credited to her or not?
 
MurielSnark said:
Hi @HotesTilaire

She was enthusiastic about the book project but was also very vague about what was needed. For several reasons, I thought it was dodgy and that they were expecting a lot from contributors who were being asked to submit work without being formally commissioned and the fees were very low. There wasn't clarity about how the editing would work or what the overall shape of the book was -- I foresaw being asked to do a lot of extra work that would be unpaid and that didn't seem right to me, especially since it was to be about poverty.

I didn't like the fact that she was vague about who she really was and it made me feel that I wasn't going to be necessarily as well looked after as I would want on a collaborative project. I think my instincts were right now that it turns out the whole thing is still not complete.

She comes across well, is really well spoken and personable. But also seems chaotic and disorganised. I've seen her picking fights online, too, and I'm glad I stayed away, honestly.

Writing a personal testimony about one's poverty is very tough and potentially traumatising and I didn't trust her or Unbound to look after my best interests on such a project. That's just my opinion but I feel like it's been born out over the process of this non-book.

Luckily I don't have any spare cash so I didn't lose anything and I haven't ever given RSM money.
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You did well to avoid it.
From memory at one point she also took to twitter to slag off those who had contributed, crossly saying she had received some testamonies but they weren't good enough in terms of content and style. As you say it probably took a lot for some people to discuss such personal and tough information, so to read on twitter that it wasn't of a good enough standard could be quite harmful.
 
Jelly Bean said:
You did well to avoid it.
From memory at one point she also took to twitter to slag off those who had contributed, crossly saying she had received some testamonies but they weren't good enough in terms of content and style. As you say it probably took a lot for some people to discuss such personal and tough information, so to read on twitter that it wasn't of a good enough standard could be quite harmful.
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And don’t forget the one that was the BEST WRITING EVA! But couldn’t go in because they were not poor enough anymore.

Horror show and her anonymity is just so very convenient, in my opinion.
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SleevelessSlopSlinger said:
Surely if the point was “awareness” she’d be pleased about the picture being shared, credited to her or not?
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She is apoplectic with rage whenever it’s shared and she either isn’t credited, or, even worse, isn’t paid (ThatFoto - TM).
 
The anonymity is very convenient for her and she’s picked a good excuse people won’t question to use. She is at least open about the fact it’s not her real name though, which is more than some people out there.

I have wondered if she’s even real and has kids before but the catering company said they’d met with her and also that they’d had contact with the school because the school were “at fault” for having explained the package situation badly to the parents (per chartwells account not RSMs). So she must be real and have real kids of approximately the right age, ie close enough that she could claim she’d changed slightly for the anonymity.

Some of her poverty tips/tales do ring true for me so I think there’s some experience of lower income there but her overall backstory doesn’t add up and her insane paranoid tales of how everyone is out to get her genuinely concern me for her own well-being and for the kids being raised with that. I hope they’re all made up for Twitter clout, attention and donations and she doesn’t actually believe the situations are as she recounts, it’s the “better” option for the kids.

Personally I think a lot of people saw her attempt to get the stories for her book as what it was and weren’t as dazzled by the thought of being published as RSM thought so she did only get writing that wasn’t really up to publishable standards - of course she’d thought people would be falling over themselves to write beautiful prose for her so the book would all be done for her and she’s had the rude awakening that she might (or unbounds editors ultimately might) have to actually do some work and it’s all crashed downhill from there.
 
FlashBoof said:
And don’t forget the one that was the BEST WRITING EVA! But couldn’t go in because they were not poor enough anymore.

Horror show and her anonymity is just so very convenient, in my opinion.
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She is apoplectic with rage whenever it’s shared and she either isn’t credited, or, even worse, isn’t paid (ThatFoto - TM).
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Didn't we think the BEST WRITING EVA was Jack Monroe? Or were we wrong on that?
 
Falkor said:
Didn't we think the BEST WRITING EVA was Jack Monroe? Or were we wrong on that?
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Where is that three dotted picture when you need it?!?

I thought it might have been - or it could have been MarmiteMama/BexKitchen/WolfNSunflowers - who still pretends to be poor on occasion (scrimping and saving for Milan holidays etc) but actually is on a benefits package equivalent to £27k a year pre-tax salary. And has a Patreon, OnlyFans and begs with wish lists for her kids bedding.
 
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