She makes sure her younger brother is ready before school.
He knows when Mum is having a difficult day and stays close, just in case.
She checks someone has taken their medication.
He sometimes turns down plans with friends because somebody at home needs him.
None of them may describe themselves as a carer.
They might simply say: “That’s just what I do at home.”
But for many children and young people, responsibilities like these can be part of everyday life.
A young carer is someone under 18 who regularly helps look after a family member because of illness, disability, mental health difficulties or another support need.
That care can look very different from one family to another.
It might be helping with practical things around the house or making sure a younger sibling is ready for school. It could mean reminding someone to take medication or helping them get around.
Sometimes it is less visible. A young person might keep an eye on how someone is feeling, provide emotional support, worry about leaving them alone or change their own plans because they feel they need to be at home.
And that can make young carers surprisingly difficult to recognise.
Helping at home is, of course, a normal part of family life. What can make caring different is the level of responsibility a young person carries, how often they carry it and the impact it can have on their own life.
There are estimated to be around one million young carers across the UK, sometimes described as roughly two children in every classroom.
Yet many young carers are never formally identified. That makes this relevant much closer to home.
Across YMCA Fairthorne Group, we work with children, young people and families at many different stages of their lives.
A four-year-old in one of our nurseries may have an older brother or sister who takes on caring responsibilities at home.
A teenager or young adult in one of our Housing services may have spent much of their childhood being the person somebody else depended upon.
A parent we speak to might be supported every day by their child.
And some of our own colleagues may read these examples and recognise something from their childhood that they never thought of as caring at the time.
That doesn’t mean we should start looking at every child who helps at home and assuming they’re a young carer.
It does mean that understanding what young caring can look like helps us notice what might otherwise remain unseen.
And that’s particularly important as we begin looking ahead to the Young Carers Festival.
Each year, the festival gives thousands of young carers an opportunity to spend time with other young people who understand something of their experience.
For a few days, they can step away from some of the responsibilities they carry at home, make friends, take part in activities, have their voices heard and simply enjoy being young.
Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing more about the festival, the young people it exists for and how colleagues across YMCA Fairthorne Group will be able to help make it possible.
But before we talk about fundraising, challenges or what we’re asking people to do, there’s something more important to understand.
A young carer might not tell you they’re a young carer. They might not even know they are one.
Sometimes, recognition starts with the adults around them understanding what caring can look like.
