T4C - Power Of Relationships - FINAL V2

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21/05/2025

Foster with North East

Transcript

00:00We're just a normal family. We really are.

00:03I don't think it's any sort of super parenting or anything like that.

00:07We've just been lucky haven't you?

00:09We'll put it down.

00:16What does family mean to you?

00:19Sat at a table at tea time just chatting with each other.

00:23People just like always being there for you and love.

00:27Being funny to each other.

00:29It's going in and after a long day it just makes you feel like I'm home.

00:36Naturally you think of belonging as well.

00:38That's how I feel like we all belong together in this family.

00:42The relationships this family have created together are fantastic.

00:45They've lived together for eight years.

00:47The three young people feel very well supported.

00:49The two foster carers and their birth children, adult birth children.

00:52The interaction, the involvement that they've had with the young people is wonderful.

00:57To take three black children in was a massive task in itself.

01:01We've had to fight racism like every step of the way around racism within the school.

01:06But they've made fantastic relationships.

01:09They've got great friendships.

01:11I think friendships come in all shapes and sizes don't they?

01:14Families, extended families, friends, the children's grandma.

01:18Neil speaks to her daily.

01:20You know she's in contact all the time.

01:22Whether she's in the UK or she's in Zambia.

01:25And them are from all in Zambia and they always ask about us.

01:28And there's quite a large extended family over there who knows by name and who messages quite regularly.

01:34And I think they struggled at first because it was a white couple taking on three black children.

01:38And they really struggled with that.

01:40But they've come to...

01:41Yeah, they've come to tell us.

01:42They wasn't appreciated what we're doing for the children.

01:44From the day they came to what they are now, it's just like you wouldn't think that these were the same three children.

01:50Is that the same thing again?

01:52Sherelle, she's just so bubbly.

01:54She's very focused.

01:55She knows where she wants to go and what she wants to do.

01:59Michelle's the 15-year-old.

02:00Yeah, there's a lot of jogging in the house and there's, like, stress.

02:04You can just know that, like, they'll be happy when you go home.

02:07When she came to us at seven, I was very, very shy.

02:11Didn't speak.

02:12I don't think she spoke to me for the first...

02:14For about 12 weeks.

02:1612 weeks or so.

02:17She knows.

02:18And obviously we realised that she needed more help and more support.

02:22To see her now is amazing.

02:24Absolutely amazing.

02:26It's nice when the grandma phones and...

02:29She's funny.

02:30She...

02:31But she even says, I can't believe my granddaughter will actually speak to me on the phone.

02:36Because she didn't even speak to...

02:38Didn't speak to anyone.

02:40Michelle.

02:41Michelle.

02:42Without the relationship with Louise Nail, I would probably be, like...

02:47Papa, mean, horrible guy.

02:49And, like...

02:50David.

02:51The tape's not long enough.

02:53Living in, like, a bed and breakfast or something like that.

02:56You wouldn't want to mess with me, so...

02:58I'm, like, a kind-hearted person now that I've lived with Louise Nail for so long.

03:03He is.

03:04He's so caring.

03:05He's very caring.

03:06He's very caring.

03:07He's super intelligent.

03:08They've come an awful long way.

03:09To say that they couldn't sort of read and write, and they didn't have any schooling

03:13before they came to us, and they're just absolutely blossoming.

03:17Yeah, absolutely.

03:18Louise, she's like the globe that holds everyone together.

03:23Like, the epitome of what it means to be a mum, I'd say.

03:27And I'd say about me dad, Nail, he's a bit crazy.

03:32He says I'm crazy, but I'd say he's weirder than I am.

03:36They kind of mold me into who I am, because that's what parents do, really.

03:40What do you mean the challenges of the years?

03:43The challenges...

03:45Getting told off for, like, something...

03:48What about naughty?

03:50I'm not naughty, but the thing is, I can slip a bit.

T4C - Power Of Relationships - FINAL V2

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