Sam's-

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Sam was 22 when she had twins Georgia and Cody, who are now 7. Sam and her partner Nathan also have Logan who is 5 and Hannah who is 6 months old. They all live together with their hamster.

With 4 children, Sam keeps to routines and makes lots of time for fun together. They especially enjoy going to majorettes and doing art. Sam gets lots of support from her mum.

Georgina: I like when she be’s kind to us

Cody: She always does

Georgina: She’s the best mummy in the whole world

Cody: She’s caring and helpful and kind

Sam: You’re gonna make me cry [laughs]

Logan: I like when you are making dinner! [all laugh]

Sam: “I’d just turned 22 when the twins were born. They were born ten weeks early so it was a bit of a shock. And I became a single parent, I were on my own. I had a really good routine with them and I were working like forty hours a week as well to bring them up. And then I met Logan’s dad and Logan appeared! And then Hannah appeared. I had a better routine with them because obviously the set routine with the twins.

It was a shock cause it was, it were their dad that wanted children and I was ready for children but obviously with all the hours that I do at work and I was like, ‘how, how am I gonna do this?’ But I managed to sort it out and work it around my children. But yeah I was a bit scared especially when I found out it was twins. But I planned ahead. So I was like oh if I do one feed at like five o’clock and then the next feed for the other baby can be half past five’”

Sam: I loved being a young mum. To be honest half a’ the time I think I’m forgetting that I’m the mother and not the sibling! Cause I’m a bit like these are, very open and energetic and we like to wind each other up… they think it’s fun

Linzi: Do you feel like your mum’s a young mum?

Cody: No.

Georgina: Not that much.

Sam: Yous are cheeky!

Cody: She’s only 29.

Sam: [laughs] Don’t tell people my age!

Sam: “We like to do a lot of fun at home. So we do a lot of artistic things and I plan that like straight after school. Or we go to clubs. We do dancing and stuff like that and then sometimes if we’ve got clubs I pre-make food whilst they’re at school. So I’ll do the meals in like the lunchboxes and we take them with us. And as soon as we get home they can have a bath, a shower and then bed [laughs].

if it’s like a Friday, Saturday we like to have movie nights as family. And obviously this weekend it’s been football nights so we watch football cause that were on a bit early. If it’s no school we like to go out and do stuff through t’day so there’s still that busyness through the day. So they know that when we get home they’ve then set times. So it’s tea, bath, bed or tea, bath and then relaxing to watch like family films and then bed. And I’ve always done that from the twins being born and they always had a set bedtime”.

Cody: Sam: We go on spooky walks

Georgina: We scare each other! We scare each other. Well Cody scares me anyway. You always say that they’re skin walkers. And I say, ‘no there isn’t, I’m not looking’!

Georgina: We get the bus to school. We play eye spy

Logan: We play this and that!

Cody: It’s like chocolate or popcorn

Sam: And it’s helped Logan make his words a bit more clear, ‘cause he’s with speech therapy

Sam: “I like to take the pictures to show what adventures and memories we’ve made. Although it’s very rare that I’m actually on the photos myself.

It’s made me realise that I am a lot more independent than what I thought. I thought that when I found out about having the twins and becoming a single parent that I’d need a lot more help than what I actually did. So I am very independent and very proud as well. Like I don’t really like to get people involved. If I need help I struggle to ask for help but my mum’s like, ‘you need to ask for help sometimes’ [laughs]. So yeah it’s, it’s made me realise how strong I am as a person myself becoming a mum because I didn’t think I’d be able to do it”.