Transcript

ADELE

Your brother's home. He's never seen our house before, has he?

TOM

I'm happy the baby's come home.

NARRATOR

And Tom's little brother now has a name, Jamie.

TOM

He's cute. It might be dreaming of drinking milk.

LAURENCE’S MOTHER

I like to stand back and just see where help's needed and stay in the background and let them get on with it, because they're both so capable and so confident when they're in their own home that I just want to be there, mostly making sure Tom's OK.

NARRATOR

Laurence and Adele need to find an accessible way to bath Jamie.

LAURENCE

How's that?

ADELE

That should be fine.

NARRATOR

They've decided the rise and fall work top in the kitchen is a good place to start.

LAURENCE’S MOTHER

Run out of work space, I do, as big as the kitchen is.

NARRATOR

This will be Jamie's first bath at home.

ADELE

I'm nervous. Been a long time since I've done it. [BABY CRYING]

TOM

Please take it to Mummy, he's giving me a headache. Do you want me to help?

LAURENCE

Yeah.

TOM

I don't think he likes baths.

LAURENCE

Neither do you. [LAUGHTER]

ADELE

OK. [BABY CRYING]

ADELE

Sorry, sweetie. Can you hold that, lad?

LAURENCE

Give him back.

ADELE

It's just not working for me because I'm frightened to drop him. I'm really conscious we're on a tile floor, you know, only just mobilised and - [BABY CRYING]

LAURENCE

Yeah

ADELE

Oh my lovely.

LAURENCE

I've got him. Got him.

LAURENCE’S MOTHER

Hooray, first bath. This kitchen's sort of new, so they're exploring new ways of doing it. And only they can do it. But it's awful for me, because I stand in the wings and I want to go and help, but I can't.

LAURENCE

You find the best ways to do things and you may not always look to other people. It ain't the best way, but I know my own body, I know my own balance, my own strength. Obviously I'm not going to take risks with my new-born son. And that I think is hard for some people to get their heads around. There we go. Shaken but not stirred.

ADELE

Some people will be of the opinion that we shouldn't have kids, but you know, what can you do to change that? We've chosen to have a family and we manage just fine. A lot of children don't get the things they need from the parental home like love and attention, and our boys will always get that. So you know, is our impairment an issue?

LAURENCE

I don't think we're particularly special or unique or anything, but I do think because of the perception that less disabled people have kids. It's fine to have kids and relationships.

ADELE

I wouldn't ever want my experience to be viewed as triumph over adversity, because I'm not doing anything extra special, I'm just living my life. I've got a loving partner and two kids, and that's it. When they come to leave home, they might buy houses that are completely inaccessible so we can't get in and see what they're up to, you know what I mean? Hopefully they won't make a big issue of it, we'll just be mum and dad. [LAUGHTER]