ADHD Mums
ADHD Mums is an unfiltered, science-meets-reality podcast for mums with ADHD or those raising neurodivergent kids. Hosted by educational neuroscientist and advocate Jane McFadden, it blends raw confessions, expert insights, and hard-hitting advocacy on issues like ADHD medication shortages and NDIS red tape. The show has amassed over a million downloads and has influenced ADHD reforms in Australia, with episodes featuring neuroscientists, clinicians, and policy leaders. It offers a supportive space for mothers feeling overwhelmed, burned out, or isolated.
Episodes
42. ADHD and Screen Time: Why Taking the iPad Away Won’t Fix Homework
‘If you can focus on that, you can focus on this.’ You said it standing at the bench, and he looked at you like you’d said it in another language.He’s just died fifteen times on the same level and gone again. Ten maths questions, Year 4 stuff he’s done before, and a minute and a half later he’s picking the sticker off his drink bottle. Is he lazy? Is he doing it on purpose? Is he choosing? A liste
41. PDA and Low-Demand Parenting: When the Demands Don't Disappear, They Land on You
Have you ever done everything right — dropped the demand, softened the ask, delivered it the one way that works — walked out of the room for two minutes, and come back to a child on the floor who won't get up for an hour because someone else said it wrong? Have you ever quietly decided it's easier to just do all of it yourself, every time, than risk the fallout of handing it over?Low-demand parent
46. ADHD Medication: ‘You Want to Give Him Speed?’ He Read the Label Out Loud at the Kitchen Bench
The script sat in your handbag for three weeks. Not because you’d changed your mind, but because you didn’t know what you’d say when he found it.Then you told him over the dishes, and he didn’t even turn around. ‘I’m not giving a seven-year-old drugs.’ He asked what was actually in it, and you couldn’t answer. Argument over.If you’re weighing up ADHD medication for your child, and someone at home
45. Parenting ADHD Kids: You’ve Made a Rod for Your Own Back
Have you ever been to a friend’s house where the kids walk around like they’re in a library, and yours are running like it’s a race car track? And on the drive home you’re already doing the maths on what she’s doing that you’re not.If you’re parenting ADHD kids, you know the list. You’ve read the books. You do the warnings, the timers, the snack in the car. And the noise in your house still doesn’
44. Does Social Media Make ADHD Worse? You’ve Saved Hundreds of ‘That’s Me’ Reels and Nothing’s Changed
Only 5% of the most-watched ADHD videos tell you what to do next. The misleading ones get millions more views.You’ve saved hundreds of them. They all say the same thing: that’s me.So does social media make ADHD worse? A listener asked me exactly that, and halfway through asking, she lost her own train of thought. I get into the question underneath it. Not what the reels make you feel, but what the
43. ADHD Siblings: The Background Child Who Grew Up Beside a Brother Everyone Worried About (with Emily Jade O'Keeffe)
Have you ever looked at your two children — one whose needs are loud, out front, impossible to miss, and one who just gets on with it — and quietly told yourself the second one's fine? Have you ever not gone looking, because who goes hunting for a problem in the child who seems okay, when the other one is taking everything you've got?The quiet one learns to need nothing at all. And it can cost her
42. You Decided It for Them: RSD, Mind-Reading and the Rejections That Never Happened
She mentioned a friend called Kel. That was it. That was the whole thing. Twelve seconds, and you'd filed her under no vacancy, decided your kids didn't match, and worked out she already had a Tuesday person.Then the term ended and you didn't sign up again, and she probably has no idea any of it happened. This episode is about the forecast you make in the first few seconds, and whether it was ever
41. RSD and Masking: Why Criticism Sticks and Praise Slides Straight Off
Nine good comments in the performance review. One 'area for growth'. Three days later you can still quote the one, word for word. You couldn't name a single one of the nine.That's ADHD rejection sensitivity, and the usual fixes don't touch it. Don't take it personally. Keep a praise folder. You've tried. There's a reason the nine never land, and it's not that you're too sensitive.More episodes on
40. ADHD Hyperfocus or Real Passion? 3 x Tests to Tell the Difference (Before You Buy the Pilates Reformer)
You did Pilates every week for a year. Then you bought the reformer so you'd never have to drive there again. You haven't done Pilates since.Now there's a new idea that won't leave you alone, and it feels exactly like the last one did on day one. So how do you know if this one's real?That's the ADHD hyperfocus question a listener sent in. She's been a teacher for 27 years. For the last few years s
39. Mum Hacks: It Feels Like Cheating. It's Worked for Six Months.
You rolled forty identical socks into pairs the night before your mum arrived. Then unrolled them all on Monday.The hack works. It's worked for six months. So why does it feel like you're getting away with something?This Mum Hacks starts with a voice memo about forty pairs of identical white socks and ends with a confession about mine. In between: the two piles every objection from your inner crit
38. Mum Hacks: 'I Forgot My ADHD Medication Again.' The Pill Box Is Right There.
A nurse who gives out meds all day found May's script in her glove box in July. Still in the chemist bag.She bought the pill box with the days on the lid. Put it next to the toothbrush, like everyone says. It worked for two weeks. Then one morning she looked straight at it, and she was already in the car.The verdict she landed on: careless with the thing that matters most.It might not be that. You
37. The Grief After the Diagnosis: Why You Felt Flat When You Expected Relief (with Erica Lee)
Have you ever fought for years — the waitlist, the referrals, the appointments where nobody believed you — finally got the diagnosis, and then sat in the aftermath feeling nothing? Have you ever had everyone around you exhale and tell you how relieved you must be, while you felt flat, wrung out, and grieving something you couldn't even name — and then guilty, because didn't you get exactly what yo
36. Mum Hacks: 'I Wasn't Consistent Enough.' It Lasted Eight Months.
Have you ever found the old laundry basket in the garage, full of paint tins, and couldn't say when it stopped being the laundry basket? Have you ever said 'I fell off the wagon' about towels?You keep a list of every system that stopped. This short episode is about what that list is actually recording — and the one question to run on any hack before it goes on there.Related EpisodesQUICK RESET: Th
35. ARFID and Lunchboxes: Why It Comes Home Untouched (with Dr Rachel Zabel)
You packed it at 7am. The safe food, the same as always, because the sandwich comes home untouched and it feels like putting money in the bin. At 3:30 you open the lunchbox and it's exactly as you packed it.You've been told to hide the vegetables, stop making separate meals, she'll eat when she's hungry. None of it has worked. Dr Rachel Zabel says the question every parent walks in with — how do I
34. ADHD and Team Sports: Why the Sideline Is Embarrassing for You, Not Just Hard for Him
The whistle's gone, they've lost by three, and he's standing in the middle of the pitch with his socks down and his shin pads on the grass, not moving. He walks off past the handshake line, straight to you, face like thunder — they didn't pass to me, I could have won that — and he shoves your arm. And the two mums behind you stop talking.You already know what the sideline wants you to do. This epi
33. Hormones and Neurodivergence: Why You Have a List of Random Symptoms and No Answers (with Dr Ceri Cashell)
You're bendy. You get dizzy when you stand up. Your periods are heavy, the headaches are worse the week before, you're constipated, you're exhausted, and your mood falls off a cliff for a few days a month. Every one of those has been looked at on its own and waved off. Your bloods came back normal, so that was that.You probably don't have seven separate conditions. Dr Ceri Cashell is an Irish GP o
32. ADHD Overstimulation: Why You Snap at 4pm When You Were Fine at 9am
You were fine at 9am. Genuinely fine. Then it's school pickup, the gates open, there are dogs and toddlers and a teacher walking towards you, and one kid starts up with let's go to the park, let's go to the park. And you hear yourself snap at someone who did nothing wrong.You didn't ignore the warning signs. You weren't getting them. That's a different problem, and it needs a different fix.Related
31. Why Am I Always Sick? ADHD, Burnout and the Boom-Bust Cycle (with Bianca Comfort)
Have you ever been told your bloods are fine, it's just busy mum life, and walked out still dizzy, still flat, still carrying a headache you've had for so long you forgot it wasn't normal? Have you ever watched a friend do eight-hour days like it's nothing and quietly decided the difference must be you — that you're just weaker, and you need to suck it up?There's a reason your body keeps stopping
30. ADHD and Losing Things: Why You Get It Ready Early and Still Can't Find It
Have you ever bought the perfect birthday present weeks early, felt properly pleased with yourself, and then lost it before the birthday? Filled in the form, folded the flap, put it somewhere safe on the Sunday — and by Wednesday it had gone? Renewed the passports early, put them in the safe place, and then had no idea where the safe place was?You've been told your problem is that you're disorgani
29. Hypermobility, POTS and MCAS: The Conditions That Cluster With ADHD (with Dr Jason Lam)
You might be the bendy one. Or the dizzy one, the one with the headaches that never really stop, the one who reacts to food nobody else reacts to. Tired in a way sleep doesn't fix. And every time you get to a GP, you can't quite land on the same page as them.Dr Jason Lam is a GP and sports medicine registrar who spends his days on the things that get missed — hypermobility, Ehlers-Danlos, POTS, MC
28. ADHD and Friendship: Why You Can't Send the Text (Even to People You Like)
There's a mum at pickup you really like. Ninety seconds every afternoon, one of those chats where you both go 'yeah, exactly' — and then the kids spill out, someone's swinging a backpack like a helicopter, someone's demanding the petrol station, and you're pulled away before you can even say goodbye. And every day you get back to the car thinking: I should have her over. We should do a barbecue. I
27. ADHD and Survival Mode: How to Stop Trying Harder and Actually Thrive (with Rachel Few)
From the outside, she's on top of it. Then something small happens — a cold, a bad night, one extra thing — and the whole thing collapses. And she decides the collapse is the problem. She needs to be better. More disciplined. Try harder.But the collapse isn't the problem. The collapse is information. The problem is that she's been running her whole life on a system that was never built for her bra
26. Why You Can't Accept Kindness: Masking, Surface Acting and the Wall That Blocks Love In
Your best friend leaves a box of tampons on your doorstep on the worst day of your fortnight — no fuss, no waiting around, just quietly handling the piece of the nightmare nobody else saw. And you well up. Real tears. And then you wait ten minutes to make sure she's gone before you'll even open the door, delete the thank-you you started typing, and walk off. Because you could not have said it to h
25. When You Say Too Much: ADHD, Oversharing and the Room Going Quiet
Have you ever answered a simple question with the whole real answer — and watched the room go a particular kind of quiet? Have you ever lain awake at 2am running back one thing you said in a group chat three years ago, certain everyone clocked it the way you did? Have you ever walked out of a room having already decided you were the too-much one before anyone said a word?There's a reason your brai
24. The 3 Types of ADHD in Women (And Why So Many of Us Go Undiagnosed)
For thirty years, ADHD has had one wanted poster. Loud, can't sit still, disrupting the class, talking back — a boy. And you weren't him. So you walked past every checkpoint in your life — the GP, the teachers, the report cards, the parent-teacher nights — and nobody stopped you. Maybe someone said you were bright, you just needed to apply yourself. Maybe you got 'conscientious' on every report ca
23. ADHD and Marriage: We Separated for 18 Months. Then He Got Diagnosed. (with Emily Jade O'Keeffe)
In the Facebook group there's a pattern that comes up again and again: the mum grows. She gets the kids assessed, she starts to recognise herself, she does the reading and the therapy and the work — and the husband lags behind. He won't consider that he's neurodivergent, or the problem is always someone else. The kids. The school. Her. And underneath it all is the question so many women are actual
22. Mental Load: 'I'm Just Tired of Being the Only Adult.' When the Kids Start Paying For It.
The mental load starts as the thing you can laugh about — the admin, the medal for mowing the lawn. And then, somewhere underneath it, it stops being funny. It's the sentence that comes out of your mouth before you can stop it: 'would you mind having the kids on Saturday so I can get a haircut' — asking the other parent for their own children like you're lodging annual leave with HR. It's 'they we
21. ADHD Assessment: What Actually Happens in a Psychiatrist's Appointment (with Dr Brendan Daugherty)
**This episode is general information only and is not medical advice. If any of it applies to you, please talk it through with your own GP or psychiatrist**Have you ever walked out of a psychiatrist's office more confused than when you walked in? Not sure what just happened, whether you got a diagnosis, what you were supposed to ask, or whether the thing you were terrified of — coming across like
20. Mental Load: He Mowed the Lawn Once and Wanted to Know If You Saw It.
The mental load is not the doing. Everyone thinks it's the doing. It's the buy now, pay later maths you run when your partner tells you to rest — the hour you lie down and spend the whole hour calculating what this hour is costing you tomorrow. It's being the default parent, the one whose invisible labour only gets noticed the second it stops. And then, into that, walks the one who did the single
19. Is Daycare Causing ADHD? Debunking the Diary of a CEO Episode. (with Amanda Moses)
Someone sent you the clip. Or your friend messaged about it. Or your mother-in-law forwarded it without comment and you sat there for a minute knowing exactly what she meant by that. The Diary of a CEO episode with Erica Komisar — the one saying ADHD isn't real, it's a stress response, and if your child has it the inconvenient truth is that you caused it. Two and a half hours long. Fifteen million
18. Mental Load: 'Do We Have Parmesan Cheese?' He Was Standing at the Fridge. I Was Interstate
The mental load is the thing you couldn't name for years — the invisible mental load that means one adult in the house knows when library day is and one adult keeps asking. The one who anticipates, identifies, decides, and monitors, and the one who stands next to the dishwasher and shouts through to the lounge room to ask if it's clean. You've known the pattern for years. You've done the therapy.
17. Good Girl Conditioning: Breaking the Pattern Before It Reaches Our Daughters — with Rachel Seiler
You know good girl conditioning because you've lived it. The self-editing. The 'whatever you want.' The 'I don't mind.' You spent your twenties in the wrong careers and your thirties in therapy, and you're still catching yourself doing it in your forties. And now you're watching your neurodivergent daughter start — the compliant one, the helpful one — and you don't know how to name it, let alone s
16. Anxiety or ADHD? Understanding the Two Types of Racing Thoughts and what to do about them
It's 10:15 on a Sunday night. You've come out to the kitchen to rinse one pot. One. And now you're just standing there, not touching it — because the second you stopped moving, it started. The permission slip. The referral. Was it orange day. The group chat you didn't answer. The dog bowl. And underneath all of it, the thought that always turns up: what's wrong with you, everyone else can do this.
15. Should You Make Your Child Hug Relatives? Body Autonomy and the Kiss Goodbye
Have you ever stood at the sink at nine o'clock at night, kids asleep, house finally quiet, and had a friend text you how are you going? — and found nothing there? Not sad. Not fine. Just nothing. You could have told her exactly how the kids were, what's on tomorrow, what your hubby's up to, what's happening with the school term. But you, the actual person underneath running all of it — you went l
14. ADHD Stress and Emotional Regulation: What Your Kids Notice That You Didn't.
You did the envelope early. You had the cash inside. You booked the babysitter. You had three adults on deck for one soccer game. And by the time you got to the car park, you were at 3% battery, panting, holding someone else's dog, and your son had his shirt over his head pretending to be a turtle.You'd done everything right. And it still looked like you hadn't done anything at all.What We CoverTh
13. The Invisible Mental Load: Why ‘At Least He Helps’ Isn’t the Win It Sounds Like
Have you ever made a deal with yourself at the end of a really bad week — that's it, I'm not doing it anymore, I'm only doing what he does — and then washed up three times by Tuesday without noticing? Have you ever bought him something mid-fight when you were supposed to be on strike? Have you ever lost it because your nine-year-old defended his dad by pointing out he did one load of washing, as i
12. MUM RAGE #4: 3 Reasons Your ADHD Medication Isn't Touching Mum Rage.
Have you ever been on medication, done all the things, prepped, pre-scheduled, and still lost the plot completely — and then spent the drive home wondering if the medication is even working? Have you ever gone back to your GP and said 'I'm still losing it' and walked out with a higher dose, a different script, or a referral — and none of it touched the actual problem? Have you ever thought maybe I
11. ADHD Task Paralysis: Why You Freeze on the Day You Finally Have Time
Have you ever told yourself you'll finally do the thing when it's quiet — and then the quiet came and you reorganised a drawer? Have you ever promised yourself the school holidays would be different, stacked up everything you were going to get done, and then spent the first Monday back staring at the wall and doing everyone's admin except your own? Have you ever been the most productive you've bee
9. MUM RAGE #3: 3 Reasons Rage Hits Hours After the Thing That Set It Off.
It's 11:00 PM. You sit up in bed with your chest tight and your heart going. Nothing happened. You went to sleep fine. You lie there trying to work out what's wrong with you, and the answer is nothing — except your body has been running a two-hour delayed reaction to a school email you read, closed, and forgot about at 9:02 PM.What We CoverThe 9:02 PM email, the 11:00 PM panic, and why the two nev
8. ADHD and Transitions: Why ‘Just Find a Stopping Point’ Doesn’t Work for Your Brain
📬 Listener Questions & CommunityIt's 5:45 PM. I'm cooking three separate dinners on not enough burners. My six-year-old is crying about the green spoon. My eight-year-old is in a Minecraft cave with a dog that needs a bone. My ten-year-old has found paint.'Find a good stopping place' is good advice.It just assumes conditions that don't exist in this house.What We CoverThe 5:45 PM scenario in f
7. MUM RAGE #2: 3 Reasons 'Just Breathe' Has Never Worked (and what does)
A psychologist told me to do a body scan. I was lying on hard yellow grass in 38-degree heat with three kids screaming inside and ants on my arms, trying to feel my body. I felt nothing. Or I felt everything and couldn't name any of it.She concluded the problem was me.It wasn't.What We CoverWhy 'just breathe' and body scans keep failing ADHD mums — and why that failure isn't yoursThe difference be
6. What Do I Do When Being Reasonable Hasn't Worked? The School Escalation Pathway Schools Don't Tell You About - with Sara Hocking
The principal told you to contact region. Region told you to contact the principal. You're sitting in your car wondering if you're going quietly insane. You're not — and neither is the principal. The system is built to do exactly this, to everyone inside it. Sara Hocking is back to map a way out, and the news isn't what you think.What We Cover The one subject line that forces an official response
5. Screen Time Guilt and ADHD: They Took Away the Village and Handed Us the iPad
A friend came over the other day. She'd just done a week on the Sunshine Coast with her three kids, the whole pack-up by herself. We were sitting at my kitchen table doing that thing where you're laughing and crying at the same time. She couldn't get her kids to put the bins out because they were glued to their iPads. I said yep, same. The deeper problem isn't just the iPad. It's that someone pull
4. MUM RAGE #1: 3 Reasons ADHD Mum Rage Feels Like It Came Out of Nowhere. (It Didn't.)
I picked up the kids in my husband's car the other day. The youngest said something. The next one waited until they finished, then said something back. There was a pause. I turned around and looked at three kids not even fighting and thought, is this how pickup goes? In my car, it's on the second they get in. Someone's interrupting, someone's yelling, I'm turning the music up to drown them out, re
3. ADHD Revenge Bedtime Procrastination: Why You Won’t Sleep When You’re Exhausted
You're at the dinner table you fought to make happen. Your phone lights up — school app, swimming's been moved, the bag has to be packed tonight. You know in your bones that if you don't write it down right now, it's gone by morning. You pick up your phone. Your kid says, you said no phones at dinner, I'm getting my iPad then. The parenting advice has told you you've just damaged everyone. The res
2. 4 Reasons You Can't Eat Breakfast Until the Kitchen's Clean. Why Most Advice Won't Work — and the One Thing That Will.
Listener Question Episode: Bec drops the kids at school, the kitchen's a mess, and she can't let herself eat breakfast until it's clean. Loads the washing on too — wouldn't want to waste time. She finally sits down at 11am. She's wondering if it's an ADHD thing or if she's just weird. She's not weird. She's been trying the wrong strategy on the wrong problem for years.What We CoverBec's voicemail,
1. Season 4 Launch Who Am I If I Stop Being In Service to Everyone in My Life?
The cafe moment. A waiter. Six seconds of blank silence. I've ordered for everyone in my life for 40 years and when someone asked what I wanted, there was nobody home. Season 4 starts here. This isn't a self-help season. It's not a divorce season. It's the work nobody warned us about — what happens after the diagnosis, when the operating system fails and you don't know who you are without it.What
110. 'Supportive of What?' The Year a Friend Asked Me One Question and Broke the Season 3
The birthday of ADHD Mums came and went and I didn't celebrate. I'd spent a whole season demanding a seat at the table. By the end of it I was in bed, couldn't walk, getting diagnosed with perimenopause mid-record, and a friend asked me one question that broke the whole thing open. Supportive of what?What We CoverThe launch episode promise — "no more explaining, just strategy" — and why I delivere
109. Sorry I'm Late. I Have ADHD.' But .... My Friend Has ADHD Too. She's Never Late
Sorry I'm late. I have ADHD. So does my friend. She's sitting at the coffee shop halfway through her first one, watching me sweat through the door twenty minutes late. Same diagnosis. Different morning. Different brain doing the work behind it.What We CoverThe vein surgery saga — three appointments, three completely different outcomes, same brainThe receptionist who handed me the appointment card
108. He'll Eat When He's Hungry.' Three Years Later My Son Was in Hospital on a Feeding Tube with Tracy Jewel Constable
You take your child to the doctor. You tell them this isn't fussy, this isn't a phase. They tell you he'll grow out of it. Maybe it's his tonsils. Maybe you're anxious. Maybe your boundaries aren't strong enough. You leave the appointment knowing something isn't right, and starting to wonder if the something is you.What We CoverWhy ARFID gets missed for years while professionals chase tonsils, gro
107. I'm Gentle With My Daughter for Ten Minutes. Then I Tell Myself to Stop Being Such a F*cking Embarrassment
You can talk your daughter down in two minutes. Then you turn around and tell yourself to stop being such a f*cking embarrassment.Same brain. Same mum. Two completely different voices within minutes.🧠 What we cover in this episode:Why you can co-regulate a child in two minutes and tear yourself apart for the rest of the dayThe "good girl" reflex and how we absorbed an inward voice between six and
106. When a Neuroscientist Says iPads Cause ADHD — And You Wonder if You've Damaged Your Kids with Amanda Moses
Sometimes the only thing that got you through the day was the iPad.And then you scrolled past a clip telling you screens are rewiring your kid's brain. Causing ADHD. Making them socially broken. And your stomach dropped.You weren't being lazy. You were trying to regulate yourself before you said something you'd regret.But the guilt arrived anyway. Right on cue.This week, Amanda Moses — senior psyc
105: ADHD and Decision Fatigue: Why ‘I Don’t Mind, Whatever’s Easy’ Is a Warning Sign
There's a script around Mother's Day that doesn't account for any of us.You're meant to want a candle, a coffee, a sleep-in, and to look visibly grateful at the end of it. If you can't name what you want, you're ungrateful. If you do name it, you have to manage it. If you stay quiet, you spend Sunday night cleaning up the wrapping paper from your own gifts.This episode is the one underneath that s
104. ADHD, Loneliness and Isolation: When You Stop Calling Friends and Start Talking to AI
Half the conversations about AI are men in San Francisco telling you it'll change everything. The other half are people telling you it'll destroy the planet and your children's future.Neither of those people are doing the school run, the NDIS application, the lunchboxes, or holding it together at 9pm.This episode is for the mum in the middle. The one who's curious but hesitant. The one who's alrea
103. RE-RELEASE: When You Stop Your ADHD Meds for the Baby — And the Pram Rolls Across the Car Park with Rodney Whyte
This podcast episode is not a replacement for individual medical advice and is general education only.You go to the mother's group, you don't put the brake on the pram, and it rolls across the carpark.Baby is fine. You are not.You're already the mum who decided — quietly, without asking anyone — that you wouldn't take your ADHD meds while breastfeeding. Because that's what good mothers do.This is
102. When You Know School Isn't Working — And You're Still Waiting for Permission to Leave with Rebecca English
You've spent more time on drop-offs, pickups and meetings this week than your kid has spent actually learning.You keep telling yourself the routine is good for them. They come home flat anyway.You can see it isn't working. You just can't picture what else looks like.So you stay on the fence. Another term. Another meeting. Another 11pm google.What we coverWhy most homeschoolers in Australia didn't
101. When the Teacher Asks ‘What Can I Do to Help? But You Don’t Know What to Say with Kat Marrington & Sally Galloway
If your child looks ‘fine’ at school… but falls apart the second they get home —this episode is for you.🧠 What We Cover in This Episode:What masking really looks like in a classroom settingWhy ‘they’re fine at school’ can be deeply misleadingThe invisible work happening before the school day even startsWhy internalising kids are often missed entirelyWhat it costs to ‘look like you’re coping’ all d
100. When School Feels Too Much Too Early — Expectation Creep Explained with Rebecca English
If you’ve ever sat in a school meetinghearing what’s ‘expected’…and thought‘this feels like too much… too early’ —this episode is for you.Because sometimes it’s not subtle.It’s that quiet moment where something doesn’t sit right…but you’re told it’s normal.In this episode, we unpack what’s really happening when school expectations keep creeping up — academically, behaviourally, socially — and why
99. When You Say ‘Can We Talk’ — And It Blows Up Straight Away
If you’ve ever said‘can we just talk about something?’and it escalatesbefore you’ve even said the thing —this episode is for you.Because it’s not the conversationthat’s blowing up.It’s what happensin the seconds before it even starts.In this episode, we unpack that exact moment — the one where you’re trying to keep it calm, keep it small, keep it ‘not a big deal’…and somehow it still turns into te
98. The Mental Load: Being the One Who Holds Everything Together
If you’ve ever stepped away for five minutes…come back…and everything has already escalated —this episode is for you.Because it’s not just the moment.It’s the feeling that if you’re not there…it doesn’t hold.And somehowyou’ve become the thingthat keeps everything from tipping over.In this episode, we unpack the invisible role so many ADHD mums carry — the one where you’re not just part of the fami
97. ADHD and Unfinished Tasks: Why You Keep Starting and Never Finishing
In this episode, we unpack the invisible load of trying to do something simple inside a day that won’t hold it. The interruptions, the split attention, the constant restarting — and how quickly that gets turned into ‘I’m the problem.’From the outside, it looks like nothing happened.But inside it?You were doing that one taskover and over again.🧠 What We Cover in This Episode:Why ‘simple tasks’ don’
96. ADHD and Masking: When Self-Deprecating Humour Becomes Who You Are
In this episode, we unpack the very real (and very common) experience of showing up already stretched… masking it with humour… and then internalising the entire thing as a personality flaw.The jokes land.People laugh.It looks like you’re coping.But underneath it — something else is happening.🧠 What We Cover in This Episode:What’s actually happening when you default to self-deprecating humourWhy ‘b
95. ADHD, RSD and Social Anxiety: Why Group Chats Leave You Feeling Like the Problem
If you’ve ever left a group chatreplaying everything you said…and everything you didn’t…and somehow landed on‘that felt off… was that me?’this episode is for you.Because this isn’t just about group chats.Or school committees.Or awkward conversations that go nowhere.It’s about what happens when everyone in the roomis solving a different problem…and no one realises it.In this episode, we unpack the
94. ADHD and Hypervigilance: Why You Feel Wrong When Life Finally Goes Calm
If you’ve removed the pressure…stepped back…even taken a break…and you still feel on edge — this episode is for you.Because this is the part no one explains.When nothing is ‘wrong’ anymore…but your body is still acting like it is.In this episode, we unpack what happens when stress isn’t the thing driving your anxiety — and why removing the load doesn’t always create relief. If you’ve ever wondered
93. The Teen They Called ‘The Problem’ — And What Changed in a Different School Setting with Em Jeffrey
There’s a moment when you realise it’s not just a ‘bad term’ at school.It’s mornings that feel impossible.A child who won’t go.Or can’t go.And suddenly the question changes from'how do we fix this?'to'where do we go now?'WHAT WE COVER– What actually happens when mainstream school stops working– Why some children aren’t ‘failing school’ — the system is failing them– The reality of alternative educa
92. ‘When Someone Says “We Didn’t Have ADHD Back Then” — And You Start Defending Your Parenting’
There is a moment at a family barbecue where your child isn’t sitting at the table.They’re walking.Talking.Eating on the move.And someone says it.'We didn’t have this ADHD thing when we had kids.'And just like that, it stops being about lunchand starts feeling like it’s about you.Because what sounds casuallands like doubt.WHAT WE COVER– Why 'we didn’t have ADHD back then' still shows up in familie
91. ‘When Someone Says “We Didn’t Have ADHD Back Then” — And You Start Questioning Yourself with Kat Marrington & Sally Galloway
Somewhere in almost every ADHD conversation, someone eventually says it.'There weren't kids like this when I was at school.'Or the slightly more polite version:'Why are there suddenly so many ADHD kids now?'And if you're a parent of a neurodivergent child, you've probably heard this one too:'Maybe it's just screens.'This episode pulls that myth apart.Because the truth is far more complex — and far
90. When the Quiet Kids Are Struggling — But No One Notices with Bronnie Hammond-Vale
School systems are built to notice disruption.The child throwing chairs.The child refusing to sit down.The child who can't stay quiet.But there is another group of kids.The ones who sit still.The ones who follow instructions.The ones teachers describe as 'lovely', 'polite', or 'no trouble at all'.And those are often the kids quietly falling apart.Because when a child internalises stress instead of
88. When Being the ‘Good Student’ Is Actually Hurting Your Child with Bronnie Hammond-Vale
You're told your child is doing great at school.'Wish I had more like her''No issues here.'But every afternoon at 3pm something else happens.The car door shuts.And the child who 'had a great day' collapses.The meltdown doesn't start at school.It starts when the mask comes off.For many Mums, this creates a strange kind of confusion.School says everything is fine.But home tells a completely differen
87.When You Stay Calm at School — And Leave Feeling Like You Didn’t Do Enough with Sara Hocking
You’ve sent the emails.You’ve attended the meetings.You’ve tried to be calm, collaborative, reasonable.And nothing changes.Then suddenly something serious happens — a suspension, an incident, a formal complaint — and overnight the school moves quickly.So what just happened?This episode unpacks the moment many ADHD mums eventually hit: the point where being reasonable stops working — and why that h
86. When the Teacher Is Trying — And You Still Leave the Meeting Questioning Everything with Bronnie Hammond-Vale
There is a particular kind of confusion that happens when your child likes their teacher.If you’ve ever thought, ‘But she’s so lovely… why isn’t this working?’ I explore this massive question wth Bronnie Hammond-Vale.This episode is for you.WHY THIS MATTERSSometimes the problem is the gap between teacher intention and system capacity.A teacher can care deeply.A teacher can try hard.A teacher can b
85. Is the Problem the Child — Or the Learning Plan? with Kat Marrington and Sally Galloway
You’re sitting in a meeting thinking you’re here to talk about support.There’s a plan. There are ‘adjustments’.And yet your child is still escalating… and suddenly the school is hinting at removal, reduced hours, or ‘this isn’t the right setting’.This episode is the practical middle bit no one gives you:When a plan exists, but it’s either the wrong plan — or it’s not actually being applied.WHY THI
84. When School Decides Your Child Is the Problem with Wren Wilson
There is a moment in some school meetings where the language changes.You walk in expecting support. Adjustments. Solutions.But then different words start appearing.‘Safety.’‘Impact on others.’‘Capacity.’‘We’ve tried everything.’And you can feel the shift before you fully understand it.You start thinking:How did this go from help… to risk?WHY THIS MATTERSADHD mums are already carrying invisible lab
83. When ADHD Becomes the Reason You Stop Trying...
You’re not lying on the couch saying ‘poor me.’You’re functioning. Packing lunches. Showing up. Holding it together.But quietly, inside, you’ve started believing:‘This is just how it is for me.’WHY THIS MATTERSADHD mums carry more correction, more visible mistakes, more invisible labour, more system friction.So when something goes wrong, it doesn’t land as ‘that was hard.’It lands as proof.Proof y
82. ADHD and Overstimulation: Why You’re Overwhelmed Before 7am with Rachel Few
This episode is for ADHD mums who feel like they’re living inside a nervous system experiment.The kind where everything is technically ‘fine’… until the TV is on, someone’s making mouth noises, a child is asking 400 questions, another one is humming, and your body is trying to exit the situation through the nearest wall.We talk a lot about overstimulation like it’s a personal flaw. Like you should
81. The Hidden Cost of Being the 'Good Girl' — How the Mental Load Became Ours
This episode is for ADHD mums who have ever sat in a car park before an assessment and felt their whole nervous system start negotiating with the evidence.Because the paperwork looks fine.The report cards look fine.Your life looks fine.And you’re standing there knowing that ‘fine’ is exactly what disqualifies you.This is the ADHD myth as it actually lands. Not as a hot take online — but as a priva
80. The Invisible Mental Load: The Coordination Work No One Sees
This episode sits right in the space where mental load, motherhood, and neurodivergence collide.It’s about the exhaustion that doesn’t come from doing one hard thing — but from having to remember everything, explain everything, repeat everything, and stay emotionally available while your own capacity is already gone.For many ADHD mums, the hardest part of advocacy isn’t the paperwork. It’s being t
79. Why Does My Partner Keep Asking Me Questions When My Brain Is Full?
This episode is for ADHD mums who feel their nervous system spike over questions that look harmless on the surface. The kind of questions that arrive when the brain is already full, already tracking consequences, already holding the household together. What’s commonly said is that this is about tone, patience, or communication. What actually happens is that one brain becomes the default place wher
78. Post-Diagnosis Grief: Grieving the Child You Imagined
There is a kind of grief that mums are not supposed to name. It could be called ungrateful.. but a lot of us feel it. So it stays private, carried quietly while life keeps moving and decisions keep getting made.This episode sits with the grief of the unlived motherhood — the version of parenting that was imagined, planned for, and socially rewarded, and then slowly dismantled by reality. Not becau
77. ADHD and Self-Blame: Why You Assume Everything Is Your Fault
Responsibility’s already on me.If this tips, it’ll be because I waited too long.That’s how the morning starts.There’s a clock running. Shoes half on. Bags not where they should be. One kid slowing down, another winding up. Nothing’s happened yet, but the margin’s already thin. I step in early, before anyone else thinks it’s necessary, and it gets read straight away as 'being grumpy.'In This Episod
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