Video transcript

Katrina (mother of 4 children, 1 with disability): Definitely, Hannah coming along has been tough in the sense that, um... I’ve missed out on a lot of quality time with Ben and Sean. But because Hannah spent so much time in hospital as a baby, I missed sort of, the three years out of Ben and Sean’s lives. So that has been the hardest thing to deal with, always considering um... you know, what the boys have on, and how Hannah’s going to affect that. And how they feel about having a sister with a disability, you know, they do a lot of caring for Hannah as well. And I worry that they’re going to grow up too quickly.

Anne-Marie (mother of 3 children, 1 with disability): I think, um, as she gets older, it is becoming more difficult to do things together as a family, so that’s when we look into respite services to look after Ella, so she stays at home with someone caring for her, whilst we go out and do things with the boys, because I think that’s the important thing to have our boys growing up, and remembering the happy times in their childhood, and not feeling hindered, from not being able to do things by having a sister who was unable to do them.

Narelle (mother of 3 children, 1 with disability): I guess the boys knew, that, they became very self-sufficient quite early, because I was always so busy with, with the girl.

Ethna (mother of 2 children, 1 with disability): And very independent, and they just go ahead and do things themselves. They don’t wait for you to do it.

Anne-Marie: My son has been making his own school lunches since he was about eight. And um... you know, he’s 11 now, and lots of the other kids down at school still have their mothers make their lunches as 11 year olds, and he, very, very happily goes and makes his lunch every day because it’s just part of his routine. And he enjoys it and he likes it, and he likes the fact that most people don’t make their own lunches, and he does. And he has become a very, very organised person, probably as a result of us having to spend so much time with Ella.

Bruce (father of 4 children, 1 with disability): I try and spend a bit of time with the kids, during the week... just watching them, just watching them and seeing how they are developing, seeing how they relate to different situations, and how they cope with things. It makes me happy that, every new wrinkle we have that develops in our household, the kids keep on going and get over it.