My Big Fat Gypsy Christening

KatyK I came across it the same way I think maybe the dreaded football was on at the time,I did feel sorry for the young girl whose husband turned up very late for the service and the Godparents didn't show up either I find it very strange as they are very insistant on having the babies Christened and certainly go to a lot of expence on the clothing and accessories for the little ones,I did watch one programme when the Groom was 3 hrs late at the Church and no one turned a hair even the priest waited for him to turn up,my Priest would have been at home with his feet up by then.

glamma. Yes the expense is unbelievable. Despite the way some of the girls go out half dressed, they are strangely prudish in their attitudes. It made me smile when the midwife said she has to try to dissuade the new mothers from giving their 6 month old babies curry and chips ! They say it is a way of discouraging fussy eaters, although apparently child mortality in the travelling community is higher than in others.

I've seen bits of these programmes whilst channel hopping and I can't understand where they get the money from. I usually watch for a few minutes in horror before I move on to Grand Designs or something [60 minute makeover today]. As my neice once said 'there's no such thing as bad taste if someone likes it, because it's 'their' taste'.

I was amused saddened to hear that the women are brought up to believe breastfeeding is disgusting and shouldn't even be mentioned.

As for the expense, well...........

I think the wedding ones are the most depressing. The brides are so young and are willingly shackling themselves to very unprepossessing husbands for the rest of their lives. All that expense when they are hardly out of school (If they have been to school of course) and that's their life more or less over.There seems to be no alternative future for them.

These programmes aren't really representative of the travelling community. It isn't an easy life for any of them. In comparison with the non travelling communities, they die younger, age more quickly, have more chronic health problems and higher infant death rates. Their travelling heritage is increasingly difficult as motorways/supermarkets etc are built on areas they used to stay on when travelling the country. They suffer racism.

I have worked closely with many travelling families, and whilst their heritage and culture remains very significant, they also recognise their way of life is becoming increasingly difficult. Traveller children now usually attend primary school regularly, and often remain in high school until 13 or so. The older generation may be illiterate, but they recognise that literacy and numeracy are essential skills. Many mothers attend literacy/numeracy skills classes run for them in the primary schools so they can support their children.

I appreciate these programmes are made to be amusing, but they do tend to play to our worst fears about the travelling community.

I knew some travellers that built a house to live in in their old age. Couldn't hack it; their children moved into the house but they chose to live in a caravan in the garden. Their brother used to visit them once a year and used to 'park' his horse on the grass verge on the road at the end of their drive [it was a big house]. I'll never forget a traveller friend of mine asking for somewhere to keep his horses for a couple of nights. I found a field for them and can still see him vault onto one of the ponies and ride her through the village with just a halter..the seconfd pony trotting like an obedient dog behind them. Knew more about horses than most horse folk have forgotten, they did. one of the biggest compliments I've ever had was when he described me to someone as a 'handsome woman' . When I was a teenager I palled up with a gypsy lad whilst on holiday at Skegness with my mum and dad. He took me to meet his family; he treated me with such respect. Wish I still had the photo we had taken together .

I too found this while flicking around... what an extraordinary programme!
How do they afford all that bling? I could never live that lifestyle in a million years, and don't understand their thinking at all. And yet, I sort of feel
some sneaking admiration for their way of life. We all have the right to be different. I think the women have a tough way of life and the over dressing is their way of compensating, maybe?
Unfortunately, some travellers are dishonest and this gives the others a bad name.
It certainly made a fascinating programme as I had never seen any of the others in the series.

I remember my mother calling me to the window when I was about 4 to see some horsedrawn gypsy caravans go past. Even in those days we knew that we weren't likely to see many more.

My friend had a proper gypsy caravan . Living in a canal village a lot of our residents live on boats. There are still a lot of people who can't stand the thought of living surrounded by bricks and mortar.

Because we lived near the Grand Union Canal another thing we used to see was the barge horses going to work with their owners sitting side ways on their great broad rumps (The horse's rumps not the men's!)