Together again

When Christopher came home to live with his mum Jessica, after growing up with his grandmother, she gave up her room so he could have his own.

At 20, Christopher is the eldest of five children Jessica is raising by herself. The others are 10,9,7 and 4-months old. At the time Christopher came home, they were living in a three-bedroom house and things were a little chaotic.

“The difficult thing is having to divide your attention,” Jessica explains. “You can’t divide yourself and conquer each thing by itself. You kind of have to multitask and do it all at once. It’s exhausting. You just get so tired and worn out.”

Three of Jessica’s kids live with ADHD which adds a level of complexity to the household. And when lockdowns and home-schooling were added to the mix, there just wasn’t anywhere anybody could go. Jessica knew that with the way things were, Christopher probably wouldn’t have been able to stay.

“I didn’t want that,” she says. “I lost a lot of years of him. And him being home now has made my family complete again.”

Thankfully, Jessica was offered a place to live with a Kids Under Cover studio out the back. It’s made a world of difference, for Christopher and for the rest of the family.

“Without the studio, my family would have been shattered again,” Jessica says.

“But now, Christopher can go out there and lock his door and have that time he needs for himself. It lets him be his own adult outside and not feel pretty much like a parent inside. He’s doing really well. He’s feeling healthy, confident and in control. He’s calmer around the children. He’s found employment and he’s got his own privacy to come and go whenever he pleases. That makes him happier.”

And for Jessica, things are still crazy busy at home. But she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It’s changed everything for me because I haven’t had my boy home. I was so scared I was going to lose him again – it makes me really happy that I actually have all my kids in my home. To be able to walk out the back and see all of them playing on the trampoline together, that just makes me happy.

Without the studio, I probably wouldn’t have that. I would not be able to see all my kids… together, the way they are. I’ve got all my kids and that just means the world to me. My kids are my everything.”