Single parents struggling to get by on their own dream of being able to give their kids anything they could possibly want or need. Unfortunately, their budgets don’t allow them to do that.
In late 2017, however, a single mom from south London got to do things she had always dreamed of doing with her kids after switching lives with a wealthy couple. According to the mother of three, the experience ended up effecting her in more ways than she ever imagined and has changed her life forever.
Rich House Poor House
In late 2017, single mom Skye Walker from Lewisham, which is in south London, agreed to be on a show called Rich House, Poor House. The television program follows two families for a week as they switch lives to see how the other half lives.
The Top And Bottom Earners
According to the show, they pick a family from the lowest 10 percent of earners in the United Kingdom and have them swap lives for a week with a family with an income in the highest 10 percent of earners. The families are then forced to live on each other’s weekly budget.
The Rules
The rules are simple. The families are allowed to spend their weekly budgets however they want. One of the only rules is that families are not allowed to use any money from the weekly budget to pay off any bills or debts. The point of the rule is to ensure that each family really gets to really experience what life is like for the other family.
A Tight Budget
According to Walker, she decided to go on the show to inspire her three young children, Ashani, 13, Riahiema, seven, and two-year-old son Kareem. Walker and her family currently live in council housing. According to the single mom, she and her kids live off of £170, or about $215 a week that she had left over after paying the bills and her debts, which included a car payment.
A Single Mom’s Dream
At the time of the episode, Walker had been working as a cleaner and was earning just £7, or about $9, an hour. Her dream is for her kids to get a good education and get good jobs so that they have a better life and can provide more for their future families.
Showing Her Kids What’s Possible
Walker hoped that by going on Rich House Poor House, her kids would finally see why she wanted them to take school seriously. According to Walker, she wanted to show her kids that they can accomplish anything “if they put their heads in their books, and get the A-levels I want them to get.”
Struggling to Get By
With such a tight budget, Walker normally has to stretch her money as far as it will go. According to Walker, she sometimes struggles to buy enough food for an entire week and she doesn’t want her kids to live like that when they’re older.
A Week Without Worries
During the episode, however, Walker got to live a week without any worries about money or a budget. While she normally lives on just £170 a week, Walker was given a budget of £1,599, or over $2,000, for a week after swapping lives with the Sethard-Wrights family.
The Sethard-Wrights Family
46-year-old Belinda Sethard-Wrights, a designer, and 47-year-old Matt Sethard-Wrights, an accountant, live just five miles away in a gated mansion in Bromley. According to the couple, they had another important reason for agreeing to come on the show.
Appreciating Their Privilege
According to Belinda, she grew up in council housing near where Walker and her children live. While she is happy she can give her kids anything they want or need, she also wanted to show them how lucky and privileged they really are.
Humble Beginnings
“When I contacted the show I said ‘I don’t know if we’re the sort of people you want because we haven’t come from a privileged background at all,” Belinda told The Sun. “I grew up in council houses and I lived in three different council estates.”
An Important Lesson
“So I’m always batting on to my children about the privilege of their lifestyle,” Belinda said about her efforts to show her two kids, 12-year-old Olivia and Theo, how lucky they are. “I have big issues with things like clothes lying around on the floor because I never had the privilege of feeling so dismissive about things in life.”
A Learning Experience
“I thought doing the show would be good for them,” Belinda added. And when Belinda moved into Walker’s home for the week, everything felt familiar from her humble beginnings. “Where Skye lives in Downham, I also lived from the age of two to four in an identical house so it didn’t feel massively different.”
Full Circle
“The main difference was that I was conscious I didn’t see as many children out playing as I recall when I was little we were all in and out of each other’s gardens,” Belinda said. “It looked tiny. Funny, 46 years and you come full circle. I never thought I’d end up where I am today.”
Different Worlds
“As it turned out we were just five miles away from Skye but living in different worlds,” Belinda said. For Walker, stepping into Sethard-Wrights’ home with a tennis court, an indoor pool, a gym, and a disco room was a little more shocking.
A Shocking Experience
“When I first saw the house it was amazing because it’s just around the corner from my house. I really didn’t expect something like that to be so close,” Walker told The Sun. “It’s crazy. The gates and everything just seemed a different kind of world.”
Walker’s First Instinct
“The kids were so happy. I’ve never seen their smiles so big in my life. They were amazed by it,” said Walker, who didn’t have to worry about money or food for the first time in a very long time. “Faced with all that money, I just wanted to pay my bills,” said Walker.
The Hardest Part
“If it had been down to me I would have paid off some of the outstanding bills, but I wasn’t allowed to do that and that was the hard bit about it,” the single mom explained. “But I loved having the nice life for a week. It was like being on holiday with nothing to worry about.”
Priceless Gifts
During that week, Walker got her kids new clothes, a computer so they wouldn’t have to go to the library to do homework, a private math tutor, and swimming lessons. “It was seeing the kids’ faces, seeing them being kids again. Where I live, they can’t play in the garden and have fun, and just be kids. If they make a certain noise in the house, the neighbors are complaining. Where we stayed, the kids could run up and down, have a laugh, play their music, there was no one to tell them to turn it down. The kids were just kids, and that was lovely, they were having a whale of a time.”
A Stressful Week
The Sethard-Wrights, on the other hand, struggled to make Walker’s budget work even though their family is smaller. By Friday, they had nearly run out of money for the week and they were left amazed that by how hard Walker worked to support her family. “There’s this cold hollow hole in the middle of my chest,” Belinda said on the show. “I normally feel quite relaxed on a Friday night and I’m suppressing this need to want to cry. I’m going home but this is genuine for a lot of people.”
A Parting Gift
By the end of the week, the couple was so impressed by Walker that they got her kids bikes, some household essentials, and even a new mattress for Walker. “I just thought these are the little things that Skye probably wants to get that she’s got to prioritize,” Belinda said. “We didn’t want them to come back and think ‘oh we felt sorry for you, here’s stuff’, because that is far from what we want. It just felt right to do something,” Matthew added.
Determined to Do Better
“We came home at the girls were like ‘look at our new bikes’. I don’t normally get anything from anyone, I always work hard for things,” said Walker, who finished the bittersweet week with a drive to do more for her family. “I felt kind of sad because I went back to a normal Downham, where my kids can’t be kids and be happy. After seeing what it was like in the other house, where my kids were free, running up and down the garden with the dog and having so much fun, I thought ‘I’ve got to do something better than this. I’ve got to fix it.’”
Working Toward Her New Goals
“My main goal about money is basically to get a house. I want my own house. I was homeless, and I’ve been [dependent] on food banks, and it’s not nice,” said Walker, who has since started a new job as a carer for disabled kids. She also started a T-shirt business to make extra money, which Belinda is investing in.
Bonded For Life
The best part of the entire experience, however, is that the families have remained close ever since meeting. “I’ve got a new friend, a new family member. My daughter has a new sister, best cousin, whatever you want to call it,” Walker said. “I’ve made a friend and it’s been great to have our children be friends,” Belinda added. “To see someone do so well on their own, she just deserves a medal.”
