Why I Wrote Mick and Jane


January 1, 2026

Mick and Jane were never meant to be background characters.

They come from the place I know best. A council estate in Roehampton, not far from Ashburton. A world where money is tight, options are narrower than people admit, and love often shows up sideways because there is no space for softness.

I did not invent that environment. I grew up in it.

Mick and Jane are not copies of my parents, but they are shaped by the same pressures. Working lives that grind people down. Systems that do not reward effort evenly. The quiet understanding that if you slip, there is no safety net waiting underneath.

That context matters.

Why Mick Is the Way He Is

Mick is not emotionally articulate. He does not always say the right thing. He carries frustration, pride, and exhaustion in equal measure.

That is not because he does not care. It is because he was never taught how to express it safely.

Men like Mick are raised to survive, not to reflect. You work. You provide. You keep going. Feelings get parked because there is no time or language for them. When fear shows up, it comes out as control. When worry hits, it sounds like anger.

Mick loves his family.
He is just terrified of failing them.

I wrote him to show how easily good intentions get twisted when a man feels trapped. How protecting your child can start to look like pressure. How love can become rigid when it is mixed with fear and limited choices.

Why Jane Holds Everything Together

Jane is not passive. She is strategic.

She is the kind of woman who keeps the household functioning while absorbing the emotional cost of everyone else’s stress. She sees the cracks before they split. She smooths things over because conflict feels like a luxury they cannot afford.

Jane carries the invisible labour.
The emotional monitoring.
The constant calculation of what can and cannot be said.

That strength is rarely celebrated. It is just expected.

I wrote Jane to reflect the women I grew up around. Women who held families together without ever being asked what it cost them. Women who learned to endure quietly because there was no alternative.

Why They Matter to Ted

Ted does not come from a broken home. He comes from a strained one.

Mick and Jane love him deeply, but love does not cancel out pressure, fear, or misunderstanding. They want better for him than what they had, but they do not always know how to create it. Especially when the systems that failed them are now failing their child.

That tension is the point.

Ted’s struggles are not random. They are shaped by environment, expectations, and inherited anxiety. Mick and Jane are part of that story, not as villains, but as people doing their best with limited tools.

Why I Needed to Write Them Honestly

It would have been easy to soften them. To make them more articulate, more enlightened, more supportive.

That would have been dishonest.

Real families are messy. Love coexists with harm. Good intentions do not always produce good outcomes. Especially in working-class environments where survival takes priority over emotional literacy.

Mick and Jane exist to show that reality.

They are not perfect parents.
They are not careless ones either.

They are products of a world that asks a lot and gives very little back.

That is why I wrote them.

Reader Question
Did the adults in your childhood do the best they could, even if it was not what you needed?

That question sits at the heart of this story.

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