Mrs P Partington is so very out of touch. Her children are all grown up, but in the last 20 years things have changed!

I have two children, aged 13 months and four years, and I work full time. But my partner and I do not live in a house above our status, drive fancy cars or take regular holidays abroad. We work just to get by - we don't even have any savings, except for our children's higher education, should they choose to go.

We own a small two-bedroom terrace, and our car is nothing fancy.

Had we chosen to opt for council accommodation or a housing association and live on benefits, things would be different and I would be at home full time.

I want my children to learn that you work for what you have and you don't rely on others working so you can receive hand-outs.

My children are loved very much, and my eldest has impeccable manners.

Yob culture has grown not because mothers and fathers have to go out to work, but because court rulings have set precedents which tend to favour the criminal.

My mother and father both worked, and my two brothers and I have never been in trouble with the police. Also, my mother and father are still married after 35 years!

Breakfast clubs and after-school clubs are not a convenience - for some struggling to get to work they are a god-send.

Although my eldest does not attend either, she constantly asks to do so, so that she can mix with the other children and take part in various activities.

Miss Sankey (very hard-working mother of two children)

Bolton