WARNING: EXPLETIVES – The mum, who has a Tyne and Wear accent, tells her TikTok following she “absolutely loves her kids to death” but insists having to juggle their needs as well as hers is tough
Social media users have jumped to support a stressed mum after she shared the struggles of parenting two young special educational needs (SEN) children on her own.
The mother admits in her TikTok video this week she “absolutely hates” going to the park with her boys – her “idea of hell” – as the two youngsters want to be in different parts of the park at the same time. As she talks to camera, she tells how her youngest is on a slide and the other son is kicking a ball in the football courts and she finds it difficult to monitor both kids.
At least one has SEN – currently a topical issue as the government is making reforms to the system in place to support families, changes critics believe will have detrimental impact on children.
Sighing and seemingly trying to fight back the tears in the footage, the woman – who uses the TikTok name CharH – asks other parents: “Please tell us I’m not the only parent who feels like that?… Please tell me I’m not alone and that I’m just being a bad mam, or being selfish because surely other people have got to relate? Surely there are other parents out there that literally, when they hear the word ‘park’, they think it is just boring, f***ing boring?”
And empathetic TikTok users rallied to the mum’s defence, posting comments with their own experiences at juggling young SEN children or just having to visited some “sh***y” parks too.
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One TikTok user said: “THISSSSS. My dad’s called asking to meet at the park with my son tomorrow, immediate tantrum bc I hate it.” Another shared: “Feel you, this is me daily.” A further TikTok user said: “My kid’s 11 I don’t have to take her anymore…thank f**k.”
In the post which CharH hashtags with #relatablecontent, she details how her partner works away from home, seemingly in or near Tyne and Wear, and it leaves her with all the childcare, and household duties for most of the week. She lists the jobs she must do at home once they finish at the park, including cooking her and the boys dinner.
The footage, which has had dozens of likes since it was uploaded on Thursday, shows Char H address the camera in the playground, understood to be near her home. The mum, who tell her followers she doesn’t drive, says: “Please tell me I ain’t the only parent who absolutely hates going to parks and really really hates it, can’t be arsed one bit? I absolutely loves her kids to death, I love spending time with them but when you’re a mam to two SEN children and you’re looking after them by yourself all week because your partner works away, you’re literally having to do everything around the house, everything for yourself, everything for the kids, the last thing I can be arsed with is coming to sh***y little parks where there’s literally two swings, a slide and a little see-saw.”
Char H, who also says she had to change her three-year-old son’s nappy during the trip to the park, continues: “That is my idea of hell because one of them is in the park as we speak, climbing up the slide and the eldest is kicking a football in the football courts, you can’t get them to play in one area at the same time. One wants to be in the park, one wants to be in the football courts and I’m trying to split myself between two and it’s my idea of hell.”
In previous TikTok posts, the mum has expressed frustration of a lack of support for parents with children with SEN. Special educational needs and disabilities can affect a child or young person’s ability to learn. They can affect their; behaviour or ability to socialise, for example they struggle to make friends. They can also affect their reading and writing if, for example, they have dyslexia.