Welcome back to How I Parent, where we get a glimpse into how the nation is raising their kids.
Mum and visibility coach Jude Turner, 47 from Brighton, conducts her business while travelling up and down the country.
The reason? Her 13-year-old son, George, who has autism, is absolutely fascinated by all things trains.
‘Trains are not my thing, but they are my son’s passion, so I literally do it to make him happy,’ Jude tells Metro.co.uk.
‘[It’s] similar to a mum whose kid loves football and they stand on the touchline in all weathers, it’s just trainspotting takes more time, a lot more travel, and isn’t the norm!’
When George was a toddler, Jude worried he wasn’t hitting all his early milestones. ‘He wasn’t walking, had very little speech and was very particular about everything, even as a toddler,’ she says.
‘I’d known something wasn’t quite right as I’d babysat a lot in my teens. I was dismissed by some early years services as being a neurotic first-time mum, but when Geroge started nursery they began to listen to me.
‘Even when you’re expecting, and often fighting to get a diagnosis, it still felt like a punch in the gut. I think that’s when you know life won’t be as easy for your child.’
But a diagnosis brought help from special educational needs professionals. And as George began to grow, so did his curiosity.
‘The first things he learnt to read were bus destinations,’ recalls Jude, who was astounded by her son’s memory. ‘He learnt all the routes of our local buses when he was just three.’
With George’s dad working as a train driver, it was a natural progression for his interest to move from busses to trains.
‘My son may not show much outward reaction to seeing the trains, but he loves seeing them, reading about them, and filming them,’ says Jude.
Now, the self-employed mum takes George to train stations up and down the country after school, during the holidays and at weekends.
‘I work for myself and the best trains run during the week, so we will head off somewhere, often in the Midlands or north of the country,’ she says.
‘My friends are always astounded by how far we travel in a day! Being my own boss means I can take my laptop and a battery pack and work on the go. Running a coaching call from a platform waiting room has been quite the challenge!’
Luckily, the pair can get a discount on their frequent trips.
‘As I’m married to a train driver we have staff passes as his dependents so we get discounted tickets or complimentary travel. I don’t think we’d be able to do the hobby without this,’ Jude explains.
‘We had a train day to the Midlands this week and it was an 18-hour day. The ticket for our journey this week would have been £180 for that day alone!’
Despite trains being George’s passion, Jude admits she does sometimes get sucked in, and enjoys playing ‘guess where we are’ with her Instagram followers.
‘If we see something unusual, which is usually a train somewhere it wouldn’t usually be, perhaps a different route, then even I get caught up in the excitement.’ she says. ‘Trains make our lives calmer and who wouldn’t want to encourage their child’s passion?’
One memorable day for the pair was being invited to see the Flying Scotsman being repainted in a workshop, after Jude won a Twitter small business award from Theo Paphitis of Dragons Den fame.
‘I’m always telling people to be themselves on social media so thought I’d lead my example and show real-life parenting and business juggle,’ she says.
‘Although autism isn’t related to my business I work with a lot of women who originally started their own businesses to have a more flexible way of working to fit around their families. I wanted to show that if I can do it with a more tricky parenting journey then so can they.’
The dedicated mum would also like to educated the public about autism.
‘Our family have always been supportive and we’ve learnt together what works for us. The public isn’t always as understanding, so I try and educate people on my social media,’ she says.
‘With the right support, George is thriving and has made some great friends who share his interests which makes me so happy.
‘George has adapted so brilliantly that I am so much more confident about the future. I think he will more than likely get a job in transport and thrive doing something he loves.’
‘Really, we should all be so lucky to have such passion. I am trying to follow his example and only take on work that brings me joy. We can learn a lot from our kids.’
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