Helping her husband to run his plumbing business while raising four children and offering up her spare time to cook in her children’s school canteens, Ms Caddy is no stranger to leading a busy life.
“My kids are aged seven, 12, 14 and 18 and we live about eight minute’s drive out of Kyabram, so I’m always in the car driving, whether it’s to school or to after-school activities like footy or swimming.
“The kids can’t really walk anywhere themselves, being that we are further out.
“We got a new car last year and I clocked up around 42,000km in one year.
“My son started an apprenticeship in January, when he hadn’t yet turned 18.
“For two months, my husband and I had to drive him to the other side of Moama, so that he could get to work.
“We had to leave at 4.45am every day just to get him there.
We did around eight weeks of 170km drives each day.”
As to her Mother’s Day plans, Ms Caddy said she did not yet have any, but she has been running the Mother’s Day stall at her son’s school — St Patrick’s in Tongala.
“St Pat’s is a small school, there’s about 83 kids, so I’ve just bought $700 worth of items to sell at the Mother’s Day stall for the kids to buy,” she said.
“We’re not in it to make money, we just sell it for the price that we bought it, as a service to the kids. They just love it, it’s such a special time for them.”
Ms Caddy said one of the biggest tests for her as a mum has been during the pandemic.
“I had four kids home schooling from three different schools,” she said.
“I had to manage them and help them out in whatever way I could while they were all set up at different stations around the house.
“You end up being their mum and their teacher at the same time.”
Still, being a mum brings Ms Caddy an immense amount of joy.
“The best part about being a mum is receiving that unconditional love from your kids.
“They always come to me when they need me.
“I've always made myself available and approachable to them and I think they feel they can talk to me about anything.”
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