I’m a child carer

Lili shops, cooks, cleans and helps to look after her disabled mother, and her younger brother and sister. Kate Hilpern meets a bright, creative eight-year-old girl, who is one of thousands of Britain’s young carers

Lili Kirtin-Grossman has all the traits you might expect in an eight-year-old girl – she’s bubbly, excitable and animated. But this was not what I’d been anticipating. Lili, you see, is a young carer who, for as long as she can remember, has looked after her mother Sarah, 37, who is registered disabled with scoliosis of the spine and bipolar disorder. It also falls upon Lili to help care for her three-year-old brother, Tyler, who is thought to have autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and her sister, Kaya, two.

I had even wondered whether the Aquabeads craft box that my own seven-year-old daughter helped me choose as a gift for Lili would seem rather babyish. But she’s clearly thrilled and as soon as we’ve settled in the living room, she wastes no time opening it up and works on it with enviable precision and meticulousness on the floor beside me.

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