Josh’s story

“I guess because I had grown up with it, it’s always been part of my life."

There was a bunch of things really. Teachers would tell me off because I couldn’t finish homework on time, and I was falling asleep in class. One of my friends had invited me out and I told him “Oh I have to stay and do housework”, and he was confused, and he said, “that’s not right.” It was things like that that made me realise.

Having support in school is good, you feel like you have someone to talk to. But then if you say something wrong, like, or something that’s going to worry the teachers, then you feel bad about it. It feels good to let it out, but it doesn’t really change our situation. At the end of the day, I’m still going to be sitting there worrying. I’m still going to be sitting there doing the same things, the same responsibilities that I was doing before.

It’s just nice to know that there’s other people out there who are going through the same thing as me, as bad as that sounds.

My mum is my mum, my sister is my sister. They’re mine to look after. It doesn’t matter, to me, if I’m having to go to school or I need to study or I need to drop out of school, I need to quit basketball, I need to do whatever. If I need to look after my mum and sister, I will look after my mum and sister.

You do sort of feel obliged to do it. It’s not because they looked after me that I feel the need to look after them as well. It’s not the fact that I have to do it because there are times when I can say no and I can just go out with friends. It’s just that I would feel better knowing they’re all right.

My family are always trying to convince me, they really want me to go out – they don’t want me to miss out on experiences of being young. But if I go out with my friends, then I don’t know what’s going to happen to them.

When my mum needs help, my friends can be like, “oh, just say no, just come out, just come out, even just for half an hour”. In that half an hour I could spend helping my mum, I could wash my sister, I could do something for the family.

This story has been shared in connection with the ALLIANCE’s ‘Stories of Caring, A Concert for Caring Special’ showcasing the different experiences of care and caring in Scotland.

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