15/06/2024
Not forgetting our young carers 🧡
Carers Week 💙
Young carers…
I have three children I’m very proud of, but if you look on my social media it would appear the other two have disappeared. That is intentional, especially on this particular page.
When my kids were much younger they missed out on soo much, if it didn’t suit them all they didn’t go. That’s because as a mam you try and treat your kids as equal as possible, “can’t take one without the other!” And I found trying to please all kids really difficult.
I also suffered terrible anxiety which began to isolate my family even more than just becoming a SEND focused family. I used to berate myself for this, how can I make my kids miss out on so much? The guilt would be enough to bury me some days. After counselling, I began to accept that it wasn’t a choice, I was sick. I was struggling/suffering, to which I had no control over…
So I felt like not only were my kids now young carers, running all over for mam when I couldn’t move because of delilah, or the “can you sit with your sister 2 minutes while I pee!”… I felt like they were missing soo much of life.
So when they hit teenage age, I began to stop demanding they come anywhere with us. Instead of saying we ARE going here, I say we’d like it if you wanna come… they had football, mates and dance classes, I wasn’t going to let them miss out anymore.
My eldest now works (19) hard working beautiful young woman with sooo many opportunities in life ❤️
My second from eldest (16) is following his love for football and teaching sports in school - although also proud of him, he’s a 16 year old lad so the thought of giving him a clip round the ear is often a daily occurrence 😂
These kids, like their parents, had this life thrust upon them. Not only did they become carers, they lost mam and dad there for a while too… the impact from that will last years.
But they need to be seen too… because not only do they miss out, they muck in… even though they shouldn’t have too…
Kids, I am soo proud of you ❤️
