Child Care-ers

http://www.carers.org/key-facts-about-carers This is the elephant in the room of our society or the silent scream of those who do it. I've already blogged about carers so won't go over the same ground.

However, I am actually really angry about the calm acceptance or obliviousness of adults to child carers. According to the link there are 175,000 young carers (11-15 years old). 27% of them miss school or have education difficulties. 68% are bullied or isolated.15,000 care for over 50 hours a week. 50,000 children care for someone with mental health probelms.

The statistics are appalling. These children are not only losing their childhood & the opportunities to socialise with their peers & learn how to be adults in a "normal" environment. They are weighted down with emotions they cannot be old enough or experienced enough to cope with. If they are coping with these emotions they shouldn't be!

I know what it's like to be a carer of elderly family members with dementia & can't begin to imagine what that sort of situation must be like for a child or adolescent. All of the complex emotions I had to deal with as an adult must be much worse for a child. I felt trapped - angry that I had to give my life over to someone else, regardless of the impact of that on my life. I felt trapped by duty - it stopped being love & that created even more ambivalent feelings of guilt.

I simply cannot see that it is right for our children to be forced into this situation. As far as I can see most support for them comes from charities. We supposedly have a "welfare state". What state of welfare do these children have? This situation, as are all caring situations, is set to get worse. It is estimated that there will be a 60% increase in the need for carers over the next 30 years. It's bad enough that 1 in 10 people are carers today. We should not allow children's lives to be stolen from them, even if it means a couple of pence on our taxes.