Case Scenario 1: Jimmy
Jimmy is a four-year old boy who mostly lives in Fairfield with his 20-year-old mother,
sharing a bedroom in his grandmother’s home.
Also, in the home are his mother’s three siblings and two cats which Jimmy loves to
play with. While his mother is at her part-time job, Jimmy stays in his grandmother’s
care since his mother cannot afford for him to attend day care.
Jimmy’s mother insists on doing most things for him, including cutting his food and
dressing him. On the other hand, Jimmy’s grandmother mostly lets Jimmy make his
own rules. Sometimes, however, Jimmy’s mother and grandmother get into
arguments over childcare and Jimmy ends up spending a couple of weeks here and
there at his father and his new girlfriend’s house several hours away on the central
coast.
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The trips to his fathers house often occurs after fights, sometimes late at night.
Since his mother does not own a car, they often must rely on friends to help make
the trip or travel by public transport.
Jimmy’s father loves him but is very authoritative in his parenting. He is often
working to pay his contribution to child support. This often means that while Jimmy
is visiting, his father has very little time to spend with him. Jimmy’s father struggles to
form a bond with him since he has spent little quality time with him since him and
Jimmy’s mother broke-up when Jimmy was 18-months old.
These trips back and forth between parents have been very disruptive to Jimmy’s
care. One such argument and trip to stay at his father’s house had caused Jimmy to
miss his latest appointment with a speech pathologist to help Jimmy with growing his
vocabulary. He currently says sentences like: “I go-ed there” instead of “I went
there”, and his mum often finds him talking to himself. This is making his mum is
worried as she knows lots of little girls who are speaking fluently and wants
professional advice. With no car, his mother is finding it difficult to arrange a new
appointment for Jimmy.
Jimmy is tall for his age and has blonde hair just like his mum. Jimmy is often very
rambunctious and confident, and people say he has the same personality as his
Dad. He loves to run around and play with everything he sees. Jimmy loves singing
loudly and yells “look at me” to his mum before jumping off furniture.
He also loves craft and colouring in, but has trouble staying in the lines and using
scissors. Jimmy sometimes plays with the little girl next door and has recently
become interested in the differences between boys and girls. His mum isn’t sure
what to say when he asks these questions.
Jimmy has recently stopped eating most foods he used to eat, especially meat, and
mostly requests vegemite sandwiches. He has also started complaining of pain in
one of his lower teeth. With no easy way to get Jimmy to appointments, his mother
is hoping that since these are baby teeth, it will fall out on its own and be okay.
Jimmy has previously seen the dentist but finds the situation scary since he had to
have a tooth extracted mid-last year.
Resources:
Australian Government Department of Health. (2021). National Immunisation
Program Schedule. Available from: https://www.health.gov.au/health-
topics/immunisation/immunisation-throughout-life/national-immunisation-program-
schedule
Goldfed, S., Giles-Corti, B., Woolcock, G., Badland, H., Katz, I…Brinkman, S.
(2018). Working out what makes a good community where young children can thrive.
The Conversation. Available from: https://theconversation.com/working-out-what-
makes-a-good-community-where-young-children-can-thrive-104933
Hartley, A. (2020). Teen mums struggle to overcome discrimination in special
program that gets them back to school. ABC News. Available from:
