Some days it isn’t just the shouting I’ve had a lot of families reaching out to me over the past week, and I think a lot of you are finding the summer holidays very intense. I completely understand that, because it’s pretty full on here too. Not in the way it was years ago, but […]
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When your PDAer becomes the demanding one Something that gets talked about a lot with PDA is demand avoidance. But there’s something else that goes on, often behind closed doors, that isn’t as widely talked about, understood, or even named. And that is the tendency of a PDAer, when dysregulated and distressed, not just to
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When you become the safe person again We’ve reached that transitional phase where my child has finished school for the summer holidays and is now at home. They’re a little older now and are about to move up to secondary school. They’re in a very supportive school, and generally life at home is, within reason,
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When capacity runs out It’s the end of term, and I’ve been thinking a lot about capacity. Why is it that, just when so many of our children are already running on empty, the summer term becomes the busiest time of the year? The routine changes almost daily. Sports days. School plays. Visitors. Special activities.
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The mask we don’t talk about It has been one of those weeks. Full, overwhelming, and somehow good all at once. I recorded a podcast and a training webinar for the PDA Society, both out in a few weeks. It meant a great deal to me, because the PDA Society were so instrumental in my
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The joke wasn’t really about the spider This week I’ve been reflecting on something that happened years ago. I was talking to another parent recently about something that had happened at school for their child, and it resurfaced an old memory for me. At the time, my child was barely managing school. Attendance was patchy.
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When the sofa slips away I saw Kristy Forbes write something recently that really stayed with me. She was talking about that moment at the end of the day when you are so close to finally sitting down. So close to rest. Your body can almost feel the bed, or the sofa, or the shower.
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You put my life into words I opened my inbox this week to find an email from another parent. She had just read my article in Special Needs Jungle and felt compelled to get in touch. She told me I had “hit the nail on the head” and that reading it had made her realise
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Coping is not the same as thriving This week, one of my children needed collecting early from school. Not refusing. Not in crisis. Just overwhelmed, and unable to keep going for one more afternoon. So I found myself juggling a school collection with trying to work, while managing a whining puppy and hoping the neighbours
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It’s been a strange week We landed back in the UK and the heatwave was long gone. I don’t think it’s stopped raining since we got home. I have to admit our holiday didn’t entirely go to plan, which is not unusual for families like ours. We adapt and overcome. We understand fluctuating capacity. We
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