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Role Models


Published on Monday 14 July 2008 08:28

I don't usually have trouble sleeping.

But after watching The Man With 20 Kids late on BBC One last week, I was so angry it took a while to calm down.

For those of you who missed it, the documentary followed Welsh man Mike Holpin, 49, and his expanding family.

He lives at home with his third wife Petrina and their nine children in a three-bedroom terraced house, with four boys in one bedroom and five girls in another.

Seven of his 20 live elsewhere, and four he's lost touch with. Despite that he's tattooed his family tree on his back.

The family live on 27,000 worth of benefits a year, taking out 2,000 in loans so the kids get everything they want for Christmas.

I'm not going to gripe to you about living on benefits, each to their own. His disability is his alcoholism, but he's not alone in that.

And I don't care how many children people have, so long as they look after them.

But not Mr Holpin. He sings "Oh Strongbow, you came and you stopped me from shaking," with his kids.

He sold one of the youngster's Christmas gifts to pay for cider.

One night the whole family forgot to put the three year-old to bed, and in the early hours he dragged a sheet off the top bunk he couldn't reach to climb up to, and curled up in the hallway.

The family went for six days without running water, before anyone questioned it. The pipes had been stolen for scrap, a trick son Luke had been perfecting during his two-year bunk off school.

But I think the classic line came from Holpin himself: "Without alcohol, the day drags. There are just too many hours to fill."

So his alcoholism is a bit more than incapacity - it's a lifestyle choice.

What a role model.


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