Jane:
I am Georgia's mum. Georgia is a New South Wales HSC student about to embark on her last term of school. She had it all built up as to being this glorious final year where she would have memories forever or make memories forever. She had it idealised and looking pretty fantastic for herself.

Georgia:
My mindset at the start of Covid was definitely very chaotic.

Jane:
When lockdown happened, we started to get word from the school that this was canceled, and then that was canceled, and then the next thing was canceled. Every time she had this disappointment and she would be in tears: "This was meant to be perfect mom, but this can't happen. This is my final year. I'm never going to get a chance to do this again."

Georgia:
I feel like I'm missing out. I feel like I can't... I feel like I'm not really present and that this year is not going to be everything as that I hoped it would be.

Jane:
I tried to be a reality checker and tried to ground her in that moment. At the same time, acknowledging that that was a pretty big disappointment and yeah, it pretty much sucks.

Georgia:
When I went to mum, she made me feel really heard when I told her about how I was feeling, which was really important to me because it made me feel really safe here and it made me feel really appreciated.

Jane:
I said to Georgia, this time of covid was an opportunity and you could either choose to take it as a negative that cost you and stopped you from being able to do a lot of things, or you could take it as an opportunity to find other ways to do it.

In terms of whether or not it was hard for me during Covid — yes it was. Those sorts of things. I have never tried to hide too much from the older kids. I've shared that with them.

I recognise that I have to fill my own cup to be able to keep giving to the kids. Doing some reading or cooking. Those sorts of activities really helped me along. Sitting in the sun, we were so blessed during lockdown time that we had really nice sunshiny days. Looking for those opportunities is how I maintain my self-care.

Georgia:
It was so nice to have that time together and to connect with each other a lot more than we previously had been doing.

Jane:
To have however long it was where we were all in a house together and no one was going anywhere except to the shop to get some more milk or whatever, was a very, very special time, and I'm really proud that I was able to identify that in the moment and not look back and go, gee, I wish I had appreciated that more because I really appreciated it.