A GROUP for struggling parents has celebrated 10 years of vital support work in Kirklees.

Mums especially can find it hard to cope when faced with the emotional and physical demands of young children.

But Home Start, part of a national group of charities, has been helping mothers wipe away the tears and regain the confidence to leave their homes and get on with their lives.

The Dalton-based group offers free practical support and advice through visits from its legion of volunteers – often parents themselves – who understand the trials and tribulations of trying to walk around the supermarket with twins and a toddler.

Home Start co-ordinator Kay Williams said new mums could often be left isolated at home with very little help.

She said: “It spirals down, no friends, no family, feeling low and tired.

“One mum that came to us with baby twins said the volunteer was the only person who talked to her who didn’t talk about those twins. They actually talked about her and said ‘how are you?’.

“Another one said she didn’t have time for a shower, if she did it had to be only three minutes long.

“When the volunteer comes she can play with the child, it’s not much to ask.

“It starts with building a relationship between the volunteer and the family so they want to do something other than sit inside watching TV.”

One mum whose life was turned around by the charity is Fartown mum of four, Kirsty Totten.

Kirsty, 34, said being referred to Home Start and receiving weekly visits from volunteer Karen Marsella had changed her life.

She said: “Because my son’s got autism and has a sleeping disorder I was really struggling to cope.

“Then when I got pregnant things got a lot worse. I couldn’t go anywhere, I was stuck in the house.

“Just having a conversation with somebody was great. It’s an amazing feeling when they’ve left because you sit and think, wow I really had a great time sitting and talking to someone rather than just going ‘goo goo ga ga’.

“It sounds really stupid but it’s true, just having a conversation with someone even for an hour, it makes you relieved when you felt so lonely, and the rest of the day seems to go that bit better.

“You start to look forward to things, it’s not just the same humdrum every day.”

Volunteer Karen, 36, said her visits had eventually helped give Kirsty the confidence to go out on her own again.

She said: “She would be worried but she’d know I would be there as a back up to help her out.

“I very much enjoyed it. I felt that I really helped her and I was giving something that helped somebody.

“I didn’t know Kirsty before and we left being really good friends.”

Kirsty also said the general public offered very little sympathy when she was struggling with the chaos and stress of taking her children out to the shops.

She said: “Once in the supermarket Stewart started swiping everything off the shelf and he was going absolutely nuts.

“This woman said to me ‘can’t you control your children’ so I gave her a card that said ‘my child has autism, he’s not naughty, I’m not a bad parent’ and I walked away.

“I thought how can you judge someone when you don’t know what the situation is?

“The woman’s face dropped and she came and apologised, but I wasn’t interested.

“People can be very cruel and quick to judge.

“Hopefully next time she will have learned something.”

Senior Home Start co-ordinator Theresa Burke, said they could help with all kinds of advice.

She added: “A lot of people have been thrown into chaos through the current economic crisis and redundancy.

“Sometimes it can be quite intimidating going in and talking about your financial problems.

“We don’t pretend to know everything about finance but we can point people in the right direction.”

If you feel you need help from Home Start and have a child under five-years-old all you need to do is call 01484 421925 and a volunteer will arrange an initial home visit.

A Home Start calendar competition with four themes is currently running.

Entry is £1 per photo with the four themes being children, scenery, Yorkshire and wildlife.

The deadline is September 21 and the top prize is £100.

For more information go to www.homestart-kirklees.org.uk