When Tamara found herself facing her first Christmas as a single parent, the weight of it felt too heavy to bear. Three children, endless worries, and a house that never seemed to sleep. “It was just me and the kids,” she said, “and I was trying to hold everything together.”

Tamara had lived with pain most of her life, not just the physical kind from her chronic hip condition, but the kind that comes from years of surviving. Growing up, she had a very difficult childhood, and spent her early motherhood affected by separation anxiety and fear. “When I had my first child, I couldn’t leave him,” she remembered. “I didn’t trust anyone. I couldn’t even stay home on my own. I would have had a full breakdown if I didn’t have somewhere to go.”

That “somewhere” became Home-Start.

At first, it was the stay and play groups, simple mornings filled with crayons, glue sticks, and laughter. “It sounds silly,” she said, “but colouring a picture or sticking pasta on paper saved me. It got me out the house. It gave me people to connect with.”

Those sessions became a lifeline, a place without judgment, where other mums would nod and say, ‘Yeah, me too.’

When Christmas came, and the worry about how to make it magical for her children started to overwhelm her, Home-Start stepped in again. “My mental health was not the best and I felt like I was failing at giving my babies a good Christmas, I felt I couldn’t get them enough or be enough. We went to a Home-Start Christmas party, there was Santa, presents, music, everything. My sister came too. It felt normal. Happy.”