Oh right, first of all I was, how old was I, nineteen, I was nineteen when I first had my first child.

Okay.

And it was kind of difficult. At the beginning it’s difficult but I mean if you set your mind straight and you do what you want to do like secondly, if you know what I mean, if you put your responsibility first and you do what you want to do secondly thered be no problem.

Yeah we, we sorted out some housing and I had to leave out of the college accommodation and we had to get housed together we had to go to the council and get some housing. Because I mean she couldn’t stay in her sister’s place because it would be over crowded and I couldn’t live in my college place so we had to live somewhere.

Okay and after the baby was born did you carry on studying or…?

I had to drop out for a while because I didn’t want her to finish studying because I mean obviously I wanted her to complete her studying because I’m older than her by a few years you know. So I made her continue studying and I was working and doing some of my own independent work and making sure that I kept money coming in you know and I made sure that everything was working right, making sure that she was studying.

So now I’m finishing the last of it, because I mean I got back into it eventually, you know and I mean the, it’s easier, it’s a lot easier now because I mean obviously for young women theres a lot more opportunities for them and if you want to study they can get you a cr’che or help you with child care, than what it was in my parents days when there was none of that. So I mean that also helps in a lot of ways.

When theres a new born baby you have to drop out for a while but when the baby is older like six months onwards you can go to a cr’che and take up from there.

How many children?

I’ve got two at the moment.

Two?

Yeah, the second one was planned.

So like we planned it, we planned it, worked it all out, see if we can afford it. And well it worked out all right and its nothing with the first scan, but they didn’t really pick it up on the first child, my first child [son], until he was about, till the second or third scan, then we had to start going to [town] to have like special scans and make sure everything was ok. But everything went brilliant with like my daughter, my second child.

But no, we still use like, shes on the pill at the moment, I use, when we do do it, I still use contraception and ‘cos, I wear, I’ve got two, one of them I ain’t having no more. I’ve got one of each which I’m very proud of, and I’ve got two kids and I’m done with kids.

Do you know why?

No, I don’t want no more kids, I’ve got two kids, I’ve got one of each, what I’ve always wanted, and I’m very happy, yeah.

So there, there is positive side in all that, you can do more with ’em. But also theres not so much like good thing ‘cos you, when we first had children, we wasn’t financially ready and we did, we did like struggle a lot for the first year, eighteen months.

So I mean thank God for like my family and my other halfs family to be able to help us to get through. But there, that’s like the good reasons and bad reasons of having kids, children young and waiting, do you know what I mean, waiting till you’re a bit older, so you get financially ready.

But it ain’t too bad at the moment ‘cos like I get through, where I’m signed on at the moment, get the money through, we struggle each week with that, but as long as all bills are paid, I’ve got food in the cupboard, I’ve got stuff for them to eat, drink, I’m happy with it, as long as there ain’t nothing, I don’t care if I’ve got no money left in my pocket, as long as theres stuff in the cupboards for my kids and my other half and myself obviously.

But no, when theres crisis you’ve just got to take your time and don’t like, don’t shout, don’t scream, don’t panic, just go over and that, try and talk them out of it, ‘cos if you don’t talk them out of it they can go on for ages, I found that with my first one. It does take a while to get them out of it.

How long have you been out of work?

I just recently fell out of work, I’ve been out of work for what two, three weeks, sort of thing, so it ain’t… I ain’t been out of work that long.

I used to a hell of a lot go out at weekends, I used to be out like Friday, Saturday night, out clubbing and that, and I used to be like down the pub three or four nights a week.

I did, up to about, even about a year ago I did miss that a hell of a lot, but what with me and the other half, we, we try and like save up enough money at least once a month, one of us go out, so that way she gets a night out to relax, enjoy herself, then month after I get a chance to go out, but it don’t always work like that, ‘cos nine times out of ten a bill comes up, so you can’t always go out and do what you want to do.