While many people in their mid-60s choose to put their feet up, Carole and Ray Smith are often run off their feet as “parents” of five teenagers.
The couple’s day starts at 5.45am and ends at 9.30pm, revolving around their grandchildren, whom they have taken into their Point Cook home.
“They are our grandchildren, but they’re also our children,” Mrs Smith said. “We wouldn’t have it any other way.”
But it’s financially difficult for the pensioner couple, so they sought help from Kids Under Cover, an organisation that aims to prevent youth homelessness by providing studios for families experiencing overcrowding. It also provides scholarships and mentoring.
The support helps this family – the grandparents and two sets of cousins – stay together in their three-bedroom home.
The couple were living in country Victoria about 13 years ago when two of their grandchildren needed care because of family circumstances. They took in baby Daniel, now 13, and his sister Tegan, now 15.
“It was nappies, waking up and getting the kids to babysitters at 6am because I was working as a hospital domestic and Ray was working in the abattoir,” Mrs Smith said.
Tragedy struck again a few years later when their other three grandchildren – Kayla, 16, Wade, 15, and Elissa, 13 – lost their mother to cancer.
The Smiths took them in and moved back to Melbourne, but as the grandchildren got older, they outgrew their modest house.
Kids Under Cover has provided a relocatable one-bedroom studio with bathroom for Kayla, who is in year 12.
“In this year, I need space away from others to study. The studio’s great,” Kayla said.
“The others, especially grandpa, want this room and jokingly ask when I am moving out.”
Kids Under Cover spokesman Martin Murley said 11 studios had been provided to families in Wyndham – often to grandparents or aunts and uncles caring for relatives.
“It’s a preventative approach where providing extra accommodation keeps families together, minimising the risk of youth homelessness,’’ he said.
