Whilst we have been having fun and games here, the lovely girl has spent a couple of days with my brother & his family. Or to be more accurate her 5 year old cousin who absolutely adores her and my sister in law who enjoys having a girlie to talk makeup, hair and eyebrows.
None of my kids think of themselves as young carers, and one of them was horrified when a concerned teacher made a referral. I’m glad that they recognise that there are children out there who do have to take a lot more responsibility for caring for a sick or disabled parent/sibling. So often these youngsters slip under the radar. It is important that all our young carers are able to access the few specialist groups available to them (even if they don’t think they need them!!) – see action for children; young carer; babble.
So check out a few pics of the lovely girl enjoying time out from caring for mum to play with her cousin in the spring sunshine.
PainPalsBlog 
No doubt about whose son that is! 🙂
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I can see Claire and Daniel so strongly in his face! Sadly he has my naughty and loud genes though.
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She bloody loves my GHD air hairdryer!! Ill have to watch that one! 😉 I just wish we could have done more togther, I was knee deep in interview prep 😦 but it was worth it 🙂
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I’m pleased to hear you say that the schools now recognise young carers. My daughter was given a card to show at school proving that she’s a young carers with her Barbados counsellors number on. Sadly, my daughter is now being referred herself for fibro and cfs. Her teachers have been great though.
You have beautiful children Sweet xx
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I think that there is a long way to go, but the Young Carers groups are very keen to go into schools here in the UK. I arranged a visit for the primary school where I am a governor and we had a fantastic assembly which opened the eyes of the staff too. There must be so many families out there who don’t even think to tell school about the situation that they find themselves in – I know that I din’t initially and only did so when my husband was taken ill too.
One of the boys was horrified that I had posted his pic!! Thank you x
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I’ll have to make that suggestion to our parent governor. She happens to be a paeds nurse. I can see if I can hook her up with Barbados as I know there are a handful of children in the school in Meg’s young carers group. Thanks for the idea. Cath xxx
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This is nice to see, I’m a young carer myself and even with multiple visits with my mum to the doctor, it was the school who identified me and my sister and referred us to the local project.
In the last few years I’ve been working with the children’s society in trying to raise awareness of young carers so I love to see success stories where not all children are staying hidden.
Feel free to check out my new blog post: https://instrumentalscribble.wordpress.com/2016/08/02/an-open-letter-to-damian-green-secretary-of-state-for-work-and-pensions/
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Hi Melissa, I’ve just followed your great blog and read your open letter re benefits..won’t start talking about that here though! My 3 don’t really consider themselves to be young carers, but as I said to my daughter yesterday there are none of her friends who get their mum out of the shower & dry them,or cope with a parent regularly passing out etc. I think that having 2 parents ill has undoubtedly had an impact – both losing our jobs for a start – but we have been really lucky that one teacher at my son’s secondary picked up cues about me at a parents’ eve and set the ball in motion. I do wonder how many parents and children out there in tricky situations never even inform teachers. Will be in touch on your blog!
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Yeah you make some really good points, for a lot of young carers they don’t see it as a role or something like that because it’s simply a part of life. I’ve found that lot of young carers are more mature than their peers and this really helps in the future (e.g. at university) so despite the difficult situation there’s always one upside no matter how big or small. I have no doubt that there are many parents and children out there who don’t know want to tell teachers in fear of being judged or riducled, but that’s what I hope is starting to change. Of course feel free to get in touch!
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