Did you prefer Pippa as a single parent or with a husband?.

[j.laur5]

I know most of the time Pippa had a husband to co parent with but I really enjoyed seeing Pippa as a single parent as it really showed what a strong women  Pippa was, doing her best to keep her family together after Tom's death and later Michael's death . 

I really did like how really got to know Pippa as a person after Michael's death.  We could really see how she was struggling with life despite doing her best to make sure her children were getting the best stable and happy home life . 

Thoughts?. 

[Red Ranger 1]

It's not something I've ever really thought about it. I guess in a sense Pippa didn't need a husband, but in another sense it did help for her to have someone to bounce stuff off: She couldn't really talk to the children in the same way, and people like Ailsa were a bit further removed from the situation.

[j.laur5]

6 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

It's not something I've ever really thought about it. I guess in a sense Pippa didn't need a husband, but in another sense it did help for her to have someone to bounce stuff off: She couldn't really talk to the children in the same way, and people like Ailsa were a bit further removed from the situation.

Towards the end of Pippa's  run I thought Pippa became closer to Irene than Alisa. 

[Sally Keating]

On 11/03/2020 at 05:06, j.laur5 said:

Towards the end of Pippa's  run I thought Pippa became closer to Irene than Alisa. 

I completely agree with this. I don't know if it was just down to scheduling which actors could be in which episodes, but throughout much of 97 and into 98 most of Pippa's deep-and-meaningful chats seemed to happen with Irene. It does feel like Ailsa and Pippa drift apart. Whilst Ailsa is very encouraging of Pippa going off with Ian and finding some happiness for herself, when Pippa actually leaves, Ailsa acts like she's saying goodbye to a neighbour she barely knows rather than the great friend she made in those 1988 episodes. Unfortunately there are no particularly touching or emotional scenes between them at all.

[Luigi Severus Fletcher]

14 hours ago, Sally Keating said:

I completely agree with this. I don't know if it was just down to scheduling which actors could be in which episodes, but throughout much of 97 and into 98 most of Pippa's deep-and-meaningful chats seemed to happen with Irene. It does feel like Ailsa and Pippa drift apart. Whilst Ailsa is very encouraging of Pippa going off with Ian and finding some happiness for herself, when Pippa actually leaves, Ailsa acts like she's saying goodbye to a neighbour she barely knows rather than the great friend she made in those 1988 episodes. Unfortunately there are no particularly touching or emotional scenes between them at all.

Was there any conflict between Ailsa and Pippa during Pippa's last few years in the bay?

I think Alf and Ailsa were portrayed as the token elderly couple in the 90s, so Pippa being at least in her late 30s, maybe early 40s and best buddies with an old couple would have been seen as weird by some, so, Irene was probably the go-to friend for Pippa as they were most likely closer in age.

[j.laur5]

39 minutes ago, Luigi Severus Fletcher said:

Was there any conflict between Ailsa and Pippa during Pippa's last few years in the bay?

I think Alf and Ailsa were portrayed as the token elderly couple in the 90s, so Pippa being at least in her late 30s, maybe early 40s and best buddies with an old couple would have been seen as weird by some, so, Irene was probably the go-to friend for Pippa as they were most likely closer in age.

I never look at Alf and Ailsa as much older then Michael and Pippa!. 

[Sally Keating]

8 hours ago, Luigi Severus Fletcher said:

Was there any conflict between Ailsa and Pippa during Pippa's last few years in the bay?

I think Alf and Ailsa were portrayed as the token elderly couple in the 90s, so Pippa being at least in her late 30s, maybe early 40s and best buddies with an old couple would have been seen as weird by some, so, Irene was probably the go-to friend for Pippa as they were most likely closer in age.

Alf and Ailsa were in no way an "old" or "elderly" couple in the 90s lol. If they were, what's Alf now? A dinosaur?

[cymbaline]

I never thought of Alf and Ailsa as being old or elderly . Mature is the word I'm searching for here. They always seemed to be that bit older than the Fletchers/Rosses. Especially once we got Pippa & Michael who seemed that bit younger. There's an age gap of 12 or 13 years between Judy Nunn and Debra Lawrance and maybe that started to show. We're also getting into the years where Judy Nunn had got more serious about her writing and maybe it suited everyone better to have Irene pick up the slack.

[j.laur5]

But also too I think Pippa was given more story opportunities when she was single and I guess she had more to worry about with money and expenses when got job at school and had to juggle work/children and running caravan park.  

As I remember Pippa didn’t worry about getting a job when Tom died and I guess because she had Ben and Carly living with her and working and she probably didn’t need worry about money so much since Ben and Carly were probably helping Pippa with money. 

 

 

[Sally Keating]

On 19/03/2020 at 01:10, j.laur5 said:

As I remember Pippa didn’t worry about getting a job when Tom died and I guess because she had Ben and Carly living with her and working and she probably didn’t need worry about money so much since Ben and Carly were probably helping Pippa with money.

I also think, although I can't remember any specific examples, that Ben helped out with jobs around the caravan park and kind of took over (muscled-in, some might say) as the (ugh) "man around the house".

I'm also sure there was some mention of Tom having a decent life insurance policy that made things financially easier for Pippa.

There was no such mention when Michael died and Pippa was shown to struggle quite a lot in her remaining time on the show, although not especially financially, more just in general. She could afford to employ Jesse has a handyman. I guess her job at the school would have had a relatively decent pay, we can assume the caravan park was doing well in order to make up any other shortfall (Pippa mentioned in 1995 it was doing better than ever). And of course there's the money she received from the department to cover the costs of fostering the kids - something the show kind of always shied away from mentioning.

I wonder if, once Tom and Pippa adopted Sally, that meant the department no longer gave them money to support her. I assume so.