Family: Mum

Writing about the relationship between Kayleigh and myself is hard. Kayleigh was my first born and she was a special child (like all of them). I won't say Kayleigh and I had a perfect mother/daughter relationship because there were times that I got very frsutrated with her and there were times that she just didn't like me at all -- but I think that is like any other mother/daughter relationship out there.


Kayleigh was always there when I needed her to be - she helped with cleaning up and getting the other kids to do things. I suffered from PND - quite badly - and Kayleigh became almost a mini-mum in these times to try and take the pressure off. She managed to get Terry to clean his room and stop the other kids argueing when it was clear I was about to lose the plot. I helped Kayleigh with her homework when she didn't understand (apologies Mr Haidon the Shakespeare assignement was probably about 75% my doing and 25% Kayleigh) especially when she kept putting it off until the last minute because she didn't get it. Almost every night when I was getting them to go to bed, I would lay down with Kayleigh and Kiara (with Natassja on the top bunk) and talk to her about her day, the teachers and the people she spoke to in the day. I teased her about boys and talked in funny voices that sometimes creeped her out. We spoke about the difficulties she had with bullies and discussed strategies in dealing with them. We made up silly songs and sung to Kiara until she was asleep.


The thing that Kayleigh helped me with most was giving me the inspiration to lose weight. We got the WiiFit for xmas last year and every week Kayleigh would give me a hug and tell me I was getting smaller because her arms would go around me more (and never mentioned that she had probably grown in the week!). We would both get on the Wii Fit and verse each other trying to make the other lose by any means necessary - she gave me the motivation to do something about myself. Kayleigh told me she loved me everyday.