This is an edit from the end of an interview with a young mother, who has two children. One child you will hear throughout the interview. The other was at school while the interview took place.
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Isobel looking back doesn’t mind that she very quickly went from a teenager to become a young mother, as she didn’t have lots of friends and social life. Looking back she feels that this time just before her first child was “just all right, it was OK I suppose”.
Having the child didn’t really affect Isobel’s free time. She went to toddler groups and made friends there. This was nice as she met her first proper good friend who had a son two months younger than Isabel’s child.
Isobel feels that one big drawback to being a mother is that the conversation shifts to just be about the child and not about her as a person. Isobel feels at this time she had no real free time, her life was made up of looking after the child, the home and her partner.
Unfortunately Isobel splits up with her partner when the first child was just over a year old. Though they did continue to see each other on and off. She does a childcare course at Yeovil College.
After the childcare course she did Beauty Therapy Level II. This was the best time ever that Isabel’s had, she loved it so much. The one thing that made it so good was that she had so many friends. People would say to her own what you doing, rather than her having asking people what they were doing. She made a really good friend, Sam. Should stay at her house that on it make up. Just hanging out, but more than that, it was people been interested in her person, as a friend.
Isobel’s leisure now is basically just hanging out. She doesn’t go to nightclubs or structured leisure activities or do sports. However she is learning to drive, which she is enjoying.
Isobel considers her leisure to be mainly going out seeing friends. she now has friends in the village. The girl that bullied her at school is now alright. Occasionally goes to the cinema. Though she will go to the shops and look at close, she won’t she doesn’t see this as leisure as she has her children with her. Isobel doesn’t class being a mother as work, as its never-ending, it’s 24/7, work she feels would have a finish time.
