As the saying goes, you never know what goes on behind closed doors.
And if there’s a TV show that proves it to be true, it’s Homes Under The Hammer.
In the many hundreds of homes I’ve filmed, the crew and I have seen it all – from derelict to stately.
But more often than not, properties are in distressed conditions, from crumbling damp and hairy mould to floors covered in pigeon poo – and many unmentionables in a family newspaper in between.
But the properties are always empty – often uninhabited for years, left to go to ruin.
I was reminded of this when reading the Courier story of a woman found living in a “squalid” house of flies in Perthshire. A property which was – astonishingly – lived in.
Social workers said they nearly threw up as they inspected Jennifer Petrie’s three-storey Victorian home in east Perthshire strewn with bin bags, rotten food and human waste, while flies swarmed.
The conditions were diabolical enough to read – but to learn a child or children were also living there is unbearable. She was found guilty of child neglect.
We’re not talking here about the tragedy of tenants let down by landlords who allow them to live in nightmare flats – also highlighted recently in this paper. That is the fault of slum landlords who should be punished.
It’s the problem of parents or carers wholly responsible for the welfare of children who choose to live with festering food and defecation – and who subject their dependents to the dangers of it.
It’s not a pleasant thought, is it? That those who should love and care do not.
But there are homes in every town and city skulking away with horrible secrets.
I have learned that no matter how pretty a row of terraced houses, there will often be one that has the tell-tale signs of neglect inside – be it an overgrown garden or boarded-up window.
The disparity of living conditions for children is nothing new but it is seldom discussed that it is not always poverty that is responsible.
Take the Perthshire woman – it is nothing to do with money that food was left to rot, that her dogs were seen to use the carpet as a toilet and that the bath appeared to have excrement in it.
On the whole, parents love their kids and do the best for them. A child’s roots are formed at home – and without love, how can they grow?
Thankfully, many people see the injustice and at least try do something.
A wonderful example of this was shown in another Courier story – that of Hayley Donnelly, a former Scottish international badminton player, who has developed CurricuLink which blends curriculum learning with sport, hoping to improve classroom engagement using sports like tennis and rugby.
Some kids are taken to sports classes by parents every day for the week and some to none. Every child should have equal opportunities but they do not and pilots like this can only help.
As can No Boots No More giving football balls to kids who need them – and the many charities from Help For Kids to Togs for Tots and Dundee Bairns who help catch those who might fall through the net.
I’m beginning to realise that as helpless as we feel when it comes to the unfairness of it all, there are numerous people trying to help and crying out for likeminded souls to get in touch.
