A 63-year-old woman named Caroline Duddridge from Fairwater in Cardiff, United Kingdom is now in headlines, as she charged her family a total sum of £180 (₹ 17,905) for the Christmas dinner she hosted. By this Duddridge tried to cover the cost of food for her five adult children and their respective families.
UK Woman Charged Family For Christmas Dinner
In an interview with BBC, Duddridge claimed that she got the idea after her husband died in 2015, due to which her household income was reduced to half and due to some harsh circumstances she later lost her job as well which made it even harder for her to manage the household. She even asked her family to help, but that didn't turn out the way she expected. She told BBC "I asked my children, 'right, it costs a lot of money, I'm going to do a little kitty jar, so you can put £2 away starting in September'. It sounds good, doesn't it? But of course, it all got a bit shambolic, trying to keep track of them and there were a few stragglers,"
Later, she went on to charge her two sons a total of £15 each and all her three daughters £10 each, for which she explained that her sons work full-time, whereas her daughters work part-time and earn less than compared to her sons, and so she decided these particular charges for them. She even charged her grandchildren aged 5 and older a total of £5 each, while her 3-year-old grandchildren were charged £2.50 per head. Furthermore, she asked them to directly transfer this amount to her bank account and made it clear that those who won't do it by December 1, won't be allowed to join her for the Christmas dinner.
Not only that, but she came forward and defended her decision completely and told the interviewer, "Why should the host hold the full financial burden? I’m hoping that people won’t think it’s a terrible thing and think ‘hmm that is a good idea’. It’s very fair. I’m not out to make a profit, I’m doing it just to have a bit of help with the cost of it.” She even added that she expects that her grandchildren will accept this as the new family rule or tradition and will carry this forward as they grow old without questioning it.
People had mixed reactions regarding the news.
The news quickly got viral on the internet and people had mixed reactions about the same, while some people came forward to call this wrong, as according to them, she could have asked her family for help but deciding charge for the dinner she is preparing for her family is ethically incorrect, on the other hand, many people took her side and made comments like "Fair enough. Sad and harsh and not exactly in the holiday spirit but her effort & labour & food are worth more than any restaurant, and in her hard financial predicament I respect her for taking care of herself while she takes care of her loved ones."
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