How Do Parents Cope?

She seems to like me; we do have lots of giggles and fun all the time. Yeah, I don't know what to say really. I mean, there's obviously a problem with her sleep, which is like five or six days of me being awake with her. I do get like a little bit frustrated with her and we start nagging at everything just when I get annoyed enough to leave the room, I just leave it for a couple of minutes and then come back in and it's fine sort of thing. But yeah, I do get frustrated sometimes but it's not her fault at all, but like it's just when you've not slept for five days it's yeah, it's not ideal. But yeah, like the next day when she's giggling at night watching Peppa, I kind of forgive her quite quickly 'cause she's got the cutest laugh in the world mmh. INTERVIEW 37, Father

Yeah, and our relationship, I mean, it's a difficult one, isn't it? Because it's not a relationship like you would have with a typical child in any way. So, we can't talk and we can't, you know, she can't tell me what she wants at all, so it's all so kind of driven by us as parents. But it does feel more like a relationship now than, than it used to be. And I don't know, I think it's it's sad that we can't have more of a real relationship like kind of two-way, but maybe as she gets older, we will get to more so. INTERVIEW 33, Mother

He can be hard work, he really can be. And it's frustration for him, because unlike his sister, he can't tell us what he wants. Like he can point to a drink if he wants a drink and he will tell us if he's tired and wants to go to bed, 'cause he'll crawl through to his bedroom and then go and lift up the 'Going On A Bear Hunt' book - which is very sweet. I do look at him and wonder what he would have been like had he not, you know... got his challenges now. But it's... it's particularly hard I think. At least with our daughter we see her interacting with their peers and chatting and what have you, whereas I just don't know what's going to happen with him, we just don't know. INTERVIEW 20, Father