Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / When Parenting Feels Overwhelming: ADHD, Homeschooling, and Big Changes

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When Parenting Feels Overwhelming: ADHD, Homeschooling, and Big Changes · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

0:05
Speaker 1: It's Friday. This is the Happy Families Podcast. We're so
0:08
Speaker 1: glad you're back. Thanks for joining us. Today is homeschooling
0:11
Speaker 1: over for the Colson's a big conversation in our Old
0:15
Speaker 1: Do Better Tomorrow episode, plus more from this week in Parenting.
0:20
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, we've got a big roadblocks update, massive news,
0:24
Speaker 1: massive news for our eighteen year old daughter, and some feedback.
0:28
Speaker 1: We've been getting more feedback on the pod lately in
0:31
Speaker 1: our episodes than ever before. Some feedback that we must
0:34
Speaker 1: share about ADHD and medication, and a whole lot more.
0:38
Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families Podcast. Stay with us, Good day,
0:43
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Happy Families Podcast. Real parenting solutions every
0:46
Speaker 1: single day on Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast. We are
0:49
Speaker 1: Justin and Kylie Coulson. We're the parents of six kids
0:52
Speaker 1: on the author of a bunch of books, and the
0:53
Speaker 1: host of a TV show on Channel Line that hopefully
0:56
Speaker 1: you have seen and loved parental Guidance. And today, Kylie,
0:59
Speaker 1: we're kicking off our Old Do Better Tomorrow with this
1:03
Speaker 1: week inherenting. Thank you Jr. For making me sound so,
1:11
Speaker 1: I don't know, really big, so big, not really that
1:14
Speaker 1: big A couple of things we need to go through.
1:16
Speaker 1: Number one, Kylie, so my old a better tomorrow. I'm
1:20
Speaker 1: just going to do it now. I've been sick. I've
1:21
Speaker 1: had food poisoning all week. I've been in bed. I
1:24
Speaker 1: have not had any interactions that have been worth sharing
1:26
Speaker 1: with anybody, especially on the pod. It's been horrible, and
1:29
Speaker 1: it's been a big week for our eighteen year old.
1:31
Speaker 1: Our first bit of this week in parenting, this is
1:33
Speaker 1: not national news. This is just our news.
1:36
Speaker 2: Graduation done, finished, finale, it's all over.
1:41
Speaker 1: We've just got the formal tomorrow night, which is a
1:45
Speaker 1: bit of an affair, and then we never have to
1:47
Speaker 1: talk about this child in school again. And we are
1:49
Speaker 1: so relieved. So that's this week in paring. You went
1:52
Speaker 1: to the graduation. I stay at home, and.
1:55
Speaker 2: I'm sure that you willed yourself to be sick for that.
1:58
Speaker 1: I've been to so many of these things. I mean,
2:00
Speaker 1: I really wanted to be there for her, but I'm
2:02
Speaker 1: not sorry that I wasn't there for it.
2:05
Speaker 2: How was it everything you expected?
2:08
Speaker 1: Perfect? Perfect?
2:10
Speaker 2: All right?
2:10
Speaker 1: Second thing for this week in parenting, I can't believe
2:13
Speaker 1: how fast the time's gone. But two weeks ago we
2:16
Speaker 1: did an episode that created a lot of feedback emails,
2:19
Speaker 1: podcasts at happy families dot com dot a you, or
2:21
Speaker 1: you can send us a voice note to the same
2:23
Speaker 1: address podcast at happy families dot com dot you. Well
2:25
Speaker 1: you just got a happy failies dot com dot you
2:27
Speaker 1: and push the button and start talking. It's really really easy.
2:30
Speaker 1: First off, an email, This one came through from Liz,
2:32
Speaker 1: who said, I found your recent Halloween episode on ADHD
2:36
Speaker 1: absolutely brilliant. I too, have read Sammy Timmy's book Searching
2:39
Speaker 1: for Normal and Naughty Boys in Pursuit of a Theoretical
2:42
Speaker 1: Spy and to what I feel intuitively about ADHD therapy
2:45
Speaker 1: talking the growing mental health explosion. As a mum of
2:47
Speaker 1: a son that has withstood a barrage of teachers telling
2:50
Speaker 1: me to put my son on medication, I found your
2:52
Speaker 1: insights spoke to my soul. Thank you for being a
2:54
Speaker 1: forever curious learner and being open to other ideas. It's
2:57
Speaker 1: refreshing in a world of false certainty. That was from Liz.
3:01
Speaker 1: We didn't get any negative feedback. We only got positive
3:04
Speaker 1: feedback on that episode, which I was surprised by because
3:06
Speaker 1: it's a really provocative and challenging topic, but a thoughtful
3:11
Speaker 1: question came through today's Not a Doctor's Desk episode. It's
3:14
Speaker 1: not a tricky questions episode, but I think we can
3:16
Speaker 1: answer this one really fast, and it just highlights the
3:20
Speaker 1: complexity and the challenge around that particular topic and why
3:23
Speaker 1: it was one of our most listened to episodes in
3:25
Speaker 1: recent months. Here's the question that came through.
3:28
Speaker 3: I really liked the episode you guys just did on
3:30
Speaker 3: the ADHD medication research, and I understand from what you
3:35
Speaker 3: presented that there can be a lower quality of life
3:37
Speaker 3: for children who do take ADHD medication.
3:40
Speaker 4: And I know that missus Happy Families said that, you know,
3:44
Speaker 4: a lot of the time it feels like children are
3:46
Speaker 4: medicated for the convenience of their parents. But what I
3:51
Speaker 4: would love to hear your thoughts on is what about
3:54
Speaker 4: quality of life for parents? I mean, I think most
3:57
Speaker 4: parents probably wouldn't want to medicate their child just to
4:00
Speaker 4: make their own lives easier. But when the ADHD is
4:04
Speaker 4: at a point where everyone's quality of life is impacted,
4:08
Speaker 4: what are your thoughts on that. So, you know, kids
4:12
Speaker 4: are struggling at school, relationships are being impacted, there's fights
4:16
Speaker 4: all the time at home. Parents are just struggling to cope.
4:20
Speaker 4: Where does that sort of fit in your experience and
4:23
Speaker 4: your thoughts?
4:24
Speaker 3: I'd really really love today.
4:26
Speaker 1: So thoughtful, heartfelt question, really tricky stuff.
4:30
Speaker 2: I think it's really important for parents to know that
4:33
Speaker 2: we're not the experts in everything, and you are the
4:38
Speaker 2: expert in your family. You have to make decisions that
4:41
Speaker 2: feel right for you and your children. Like we've got opinions,
4:45
Speaker 2: we've got experience in so many different areas, and we
4:51
Speaker 2: have experience with our children specifically, but each family has
4:55
Speaker 2: to kind of work through these things and gather the
4:58
Speaker 2: information that feels right to them and make a decision
5:01
Speaker 2: that's going to make a difference in their lives. Yeah.
5:05
Speaker 1: So, I mean, on top of experience and opinion, I've
5:09
Speaker 1: got more than twenty years of experience doing this work now,
5:14
Speaker 1: and my response is a little bit different to yours.
5:18
Speaker 1: I'm probably a little bit more I don't know, I
5:21
Speaker 1: don't know polarizing with my response? Am I polarizing person?
5:25
Speaker 2: I remember being a young mum and being lost a
5:28
Speaker 2: lot of the time and trying to make decisions and
5:31
Speaker 2: everyone's got an opinion and it's so loud, and.
5:36
Speaker 1: See the specialist and then yes, and the specialist tells
5:38
Speaker 1: you stuff, but then you listen to the podcast, and
5:39
Speaker 1: I'm saying, well, actually, the research is saying something the
5:41
Speaker 1: specialist clearly, and research shows that specialists aren't reading the research.
5:45
Speaker 2: But the challenge is I stopped listening to my own voice.
5:49
Speaker 2: I stopped listening to what felt intuitively right for me
5:53
Speaker 2: and my child. Yeah.
5:54
Speaker 1: I still don't know that intuition is always going to
5:56
Speaker 1: be right either. Sometimes we need to rely on the
5:58
Speaker 1: research and the research. So here's how I'd respond, which
6:01
Speaker 1: is just a little bit counter to you. And I'm
6:03
Speaker 1: not saying that you're wrong. I'm just I have I
6:05
Speaker 1: have a different response to this, and my response is
6:07
Speaker 1: as follows. If you are struggling.
6:10
Speaker 2: With a child who is medicated and are not medicated,
6:13
Speaker 2: she's asking.
6:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, so do I put my child on medication because
6:17
Speaker 1: things are crazy? I'm going to say, we've got to
6:19
Speaker 1: stop blaming the child, and we've got to stop diagnosing
6:22
Speaker 1: the child, because this is not a child problem. In
6:25
Speaker 1: most instances, this is an environment problem. And so I'm
6:28
Speaker 1: going to say, as impossible as it sounds, and I
6:31
Speaker 1: don't know how you do it in practical terms, because
6:33
Speaker 1: everyone's got two or three jobs and everyone struggling to
6:36
Speaker 1: pay the mortgage, all the rant and cost of living
6:38
Speaker 1: and the kids and school and whatever. But I would
6:41
Speaker 1: be saying, what can you do to get off the
6:43
Speaker 1: hamster wheel? What can you do to start playing the
6:45
Speaker 1: game by different rules? Everyone says that your kids have
6:48
Speaker 1: to go to school, that they have to sit in
6:51
Speaker 1: this round hole and act like this square peg or
6:54
Speaker 1: whatever it is. And my question is why. So we
6:59
Speaker 1: had similar struggles early on with our daughter and we said, well, well,
7:02
Speaker 1: I'm going to play that game anymore. And yeah, there's
7:04
Speaker 1: an element of privilege when you can say, well, we've
7:06
Speaker 1: got a parent who was able to stay at home
7:08
Speaker 1: and become a full time homeschool parent.
7:11
Speaker 2: I'm just going to push back. It might feel like
7:15
Speaker 2: privileged to some people, but it's totally turned my life
7:18
Speaker 2: upside down.
7:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, completely, Like it's not I haven't.
7:22
Speaker 2: Made this decision because it makes my life easier in
7:25
Speaker 2: so many ways. It complicates my life beyond belief. It
7:29
Speaker 2: would be so much easier, so much easier for me
7:32
Speaker 2: to send us to school.
7:34
Speaker 1: Not to mention the fact that you've had jobs in
7:37
Speaker 1: the past and you might like to work, and now
7:38
Speaker 1: that's just not an option, like, and our family wouldn't
7:41
Speaker 1: mind if you were doing that. We could do it
7:42
Speaker 1: with an extra dough every now and again, especially with
7:44
Speaker 1: Christmas comes, I don't.
7:45
Speaker 2: Spend time with friends. I have stopped doing all of
7:47
Speaker 2: the things that bring me joy. Yeah, Like, this is
7:50
Speaker 2: not I get a little bit antsy when we're kind
7:55
Speaker 2: of talking about being privileged to make the decision. This
7:58
Speaker 2: has actually been a really hard decision.
8:00
Speaker 1: So what I'm really getting at here, though, is this
8:03
Speaker 1: is a This is an environmental thing more often than not,
8:06
Speaker 1: and if you can change the environment, get rid of screens,
8:09
Speaker 1: make sure the diet's good, is sleep happening, Is there
8:11
Speaker 1: enough physical activity. I'm looking at all of those things
8:14
Speaker 1: first before I'm saying let's medicate.
8:16
Speaker 2: And I agree entirely. I think that too often we
8:19
Speaker 2: just want the quick fix because we feel stretched. We're stretched,
8:25
Speaker 2: our lives take so much from us, and often as
8:30
Speaker 2: parents we've kind of got little to give our kids
8:33
Speaker 2: at the end of the day. Yeah, yep, so we've
8:35
Speaker 2: got We've got the whole mix wrong.
8:37
Speaker 1: Hopefully that's a helpful quick answer. It's it's not a
8:40
Speaker 1: tricky question. Episode. This is a This Week in Parenting housekeeping.
8:44
Speaker 1: Let's let's just do the quick round up. There's one
8:47
Speaker 1: more piece of this week in parenting news that I
8:51
Speaker 1: need to run through that is very important. Roadblocks. Oh
8:54
Speaker 1: my goodness, Roadblocks in the news again. Roadblocks has contacted
8:58
Speaker 1: me directly. I've had some fairly strong things to say
9:00
Speaker 1: about Roadblocks over the years, and they have shared some
9:04
Speaker 1: recent communications about some changes that are happening, and I
9:06
Speaker 1: just think it's important that I pass those on because
9:09
Speaker 1: if you're a parent who's been listening to the podcast
9:11
Speaker 1: for a long time and have taken the same approach
9:13
Speaker 1: that we have that our children are not going to
9:15
Speaker 1: be on roadblocks, you might want to know about it.
9:17
Speaker 1: So basically, what they're doing now as a result of
9:20
Speaker 1: the December ten changes, even though the government is not
9:23
Speaker 1: mandating that Roadblocks do this, Roadblocks is currently not on
9:26
Speaker 1: the list. What they are doing is that they're requiring
9:29
Speaker 1: a facial age check for all users who are accessing
9:32
Speaker 1: chat features. Now, let me say that again. All users
9:36
Speaker 1: who are accessing chat features now require a facial age check.
9:42
Speaker 1: So they're technically the first online gaming or communication platform
9:46
Speaker 1: to do that. It's already kicked off. It started a
9:49
Speaker 1: couple of days ago. Literally this week, users can voluntarily,
9:53
Speaker 1: and let me just emphasize, voluntarily complete an age check
9:56
Speaker 1: to secure chat access ahead of the upcoming requirements. They're
10:02
Speaker 1: doing it here in the Netherlands and New Zealand, which
10:04
Speaker 1: I think is quite interesting, and they're planning on rolling
10:06
Speaker 1: about globally in January. Now what does that mean? Why
10:09
Speaker 1: does that matter? What it means is that they can
10:12
Speaker 1: now implement what they're calling age based chat. So basically,
10:17
Speaker 1: your child uploads an image of themselves, right, and then
10:22
Speaker 1: they will be put into groups according to age groups,
10:25
Speaker 1: So you can only chat with people in your age
10:27
Speaker 1: group under nine, nine to twelve, thirteen to fifteen, sixteen
10:31
Speaker 1: to seventeen, eighteen to twenty or twenty one and over.
10:35
Speaker 1: You can chat with those in your own age group,
10:37
Speaker 1: oh sorry, and similar age groups as appropriate. So this
10:41
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. There's one other thing that's worth highlighting here.
10:44
Speaker 1: To keep their youngest users safe, chat in experiences will
10:48
Speaker 1: be turned to default off if you're under nine unless
10:52
Speaker 1: a parent provides consent after an age check. So there's
10:55
Speaker 1: a few other things in there that we don't have
10:56
Speaker 1: time to talk about in today's pod, but roadblocks of
10:59
Speaker 1: each out and they've said we're trying, we're doing something here.
11:03
Speaker 2: Well, it's always nice to know that someone's trying. How
11:06
Speaker 2: do you think this will impact kids' safety moving forward?
11:08
Speaker 1: So whenever I hear the idea of trying, I'm reminded
11:12
Speaker 1: of master Yodoran stars cry not do, I'll do not.
11:19
Speaker 2: There is no try.
11:20
Speaker 1: I think that these are positive changes. The proof is
11:22
Speaker 1: in the pudding. It's not going to change my mind
11:24
Speaker 1: about allowing our daughter on roadblocks. There are still too
11:27
Speaker 1: many other problems in terms of the conversations that happen,
11:31
Speaker 1: the games that are available on the platform, the content
11:36
Speaker 1: that's available. They are saying now that they're going to
11:39
Speaker 1: be putting limits on mature content and external link sharing,
11:42
Speaker 1: that they're going to be increasing parental controls for visibility
11:47
Speaker 1: and customization, proofs in the pudding. I'm not willing to
11:51
Speaker 1: trust them yet. I don't think that they've done anything.
11:53
Speaker 1: I don't think any tech company has done anything that says, oh, okay,
11:57
Speaker 1: they've got my child's best interest at heart. I truly
11:59
Speaker 1: don't believe that they. I'm not a screens bad kind
12:02
Speaker 1: of person. I'm a life and childhood is good kind
12:06
Speaker 1: of person, and I don't think that this is the
12:08
Speaker 1: necessary part of a healthier, happy childhood. So I wanted
12:11
Speaker 1: to pass it on because they are making improvements, and
12:13
Speaker 1: I want to give some credit where credit's due. I
12:14
Speaker 1: don't think the credits are nearly big enough or good enough,
12:17
Speaker 1: and I don't believe that they're going to move the
12:19
Speaker 1: needle in a meaningful way, although it is a start
12:22
Speaker 1: and I'm pleased about that. Right, that's it for our
12:25
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, our housekeeping. Our fifteen year old got
12:28
Speaker 1: crankapp me the other day. She said, Dad, I don't
12:30
Speaker 1: like older better tomorrow anymore. There's too much housekeeping and
12:33
Speaker 1: enough stories about us. So after the break, is our
12:38
Speaker 1: youngest going to keep on homeschooling? You've had a conversation.
12:41
Speaker 1: It's your old do better Tomorrow's story. We'll find out
12:44
Speaker 1: more next. Stay with us. We're back. This is the
12:54
Speaker 1: Happy Family's podcast, Kylie, What is your old do better
12:57
Speaker 1: Tomorrow's story? Since I don't have one?
12:59
Speaker 2: If my conversation with you before the break about how
13:04
Speaker 2: homeschooling actually has completely I don't want to say turned
13:09
Speaker 2: my life to upside down, but it's completely changed the
13:11
Speaker 2: way I get to live my life and I get
13:14
Speaker 2: to the end of the year, and I do feel
13:16
Speaker 2: burnt out, and I do feel really disconnected from the
13:18
Speaker 2: people that I love and care about, and so I
13:21
Speaker 2: get into this mindset where it would be really really
13:24
Speaker 2: nice to kind of hand her back over to the
13:26
Speaker 2: system and get somebody else to do the hard yards.
13:29
Speaker 2: And at the same time I was having those feelings,
13:32
Speaker 2: she got invited to go back to her school with
13:35
Speaker 2: one of her school friends and attend a school event,
13:39
Speaker 2: and imed an out about it, and I thought, you know,
13:41
Speaker 2: is this just gonna kind of create more challenge for
13:43
Speaker 2: her and struggle as she tries to work out what
13:45
Speaker 2: she wants to do moving forward, or is this going
13:48
Speaker 2: to be exactly what I need. She's going to go back,
13:50
Speaker 2: want to be there, and we just hit the button
13:52
Speaker 2: and you know, kind of pay the bills. But I
13:56
Speaker 2: decided that I just I needed to give her opportunities,
13:58
Speaker 2: and so I let I know that her friend had
14:00
Speaker 2: asked if she wanted to go. She actually didn't want
14:02
Speaker 2: to go on the beginning, but she changed her mind
14:04
Speaker 2: and so she went along, and she came home and
14:06
Speaker 2: she was really really excited and she said, Mom, I'm
14:09
Speaker 2: thinking I want to go back to school in year
14:11
Speaker 2: six or maybe year seven. But I you know, I'm
14:14
Speaker 2: really I need you to know. I want to go
14:16
Speaker 2: back to my old school. I don't want to do
14:18
Speaker 2: a new school anyway. I left it for a day
14:20
Speaker 2: or two, and I thought, I'm just going to tap
14:22
Speaker 2: back in with her about this. And so I went
14:24
Speaker 2: in and I said, do you think we could have
14:26
Speaker 2: an exploration conversation. We're just going to explore a couple
14:29
Speaker 2: of thoughts. I said. It doesn't mean that anything's going
14:31
Speaker 2: to change. I said, but I'd really love to understand
14:34
Speaker 2: how you're feeling. She said, sure, Mom. And I said,
14:37
Speaker 2: the other day you told me that you want you
14:38
Speaker 2: wanted to go back to school in year six or
14:40
Speaker 2: year seven. I said, well, do you know that year
14:42
Speaker 2: six means next year, so you're gonna have it. You're
14:44
Speaker 2: gonna have the Christmas break and then you start year
14:47
Speaker 2: six work. And she said, oh, yeah, I don't want
14:50
Speaker 2: to go back to school next year. And I said,
14:52
Speaker 2: can you tell me a bit more about that. I said,
14:53
Speaker 2: if we were to sit down and work out the
14:56
Speaker 2: reasons that you would go back to school, like, what
14:58
Speaker 2: are the pros for you? What stands out the things
15:00
Speaker 2: that you feel like you're missing out on. She did
15:03
Speaker 2: such a great job. She was able to rattle them
15:04
Speaker 2: off really quickly. She just said that she really misses
15:08
Speaker 2: hanging out with her school friends, so for her, that's
15:10
Speaker 2: a pro. She gets to see her friends every day.
15:13
Speaker 2: She loves the fact that at school there's structured learning,
15:17
Speaker 2: which she experiences at home, but she does it with others,
15:21
Speaker 2: so she's got the community at school. She highlighted that
15:26
Speaker 2: at school she gets to plan the playground every day,
15:28
Speaker 2: so she's moving her body, that she's got access to
15:31
Speaker 2: a library every day. This was really important for her,
15:36
Speaker 2: and that her time was always taken up at school.
15:40
Speaker 2: So I said to her, Okay, well that's a great list.
15:42
Speaker 2: I said, why wouldn't you want to go back to school,
15:45
Speaker 2: and she said, they're only might but I could get bullied,
15:48
Speaker 2: Like I might get bullied, and I might be mistreated
15:51
Speaker 2: by people at school. And really I struggle sometimes listening
15:55
Speaker 2: to the teacher, so I might get in trouble. I
15:57
Speaker 2: don't like getting in trouble. I'm like, okay, anything else
16:00
Speaker 2: She didn't have anything else. I'm like, okay, I said,
16:03
Speaker 2: can you tell me what it is that you love
16:05
Speaker 2: about being at home. And this actually blew me away
16:09
Speaker 2: because she had this beautiful list for going back to school,
16:12
Speaker 2: like it sounds.
16:13
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, it's like decision, but the list.
16:18
Speaker 2: About staying home, like rattled off her tongue, is just
16:21
Speaker 2: like so fast. And she just said, I love that
16:24
Speaker 2: Mum's my teacher. I love that I can get most
16:26
Speaker 2: of my learning done in about two hours each day.
16:29
Speaker 2: That it's flexible, and it means that if I want
16:32
Speaker 2: to be able to spend time with my friends in
16:33
Speaker 2: the morning, I can do my school work in the
16:35
Speaker 2: afternoon or vice versa. I love that I get to
16:38
Speaker 2: do it at home in an environment that feels good, safe,
16:41
Speaker 2: and familiar to me. She said that she has great
16:45
Speaker 2: friends in her homeschooling community, and she loves that she
16:48
Speaker 2: can catch up with them pretty much whenever she wants.
16:51
Speaker 2: She's got lots of free time to be creative and
16:54
Speaker 2: do things that really fill her cup, and she's got
16:57
Speaker 2: more available time to do work around the house so
16:59
Speaker 2: she can earn some money. She's pretty entrepreneurial.
17:02
Speaker 1: In that regard, well entrepreneurializing. I want money for mum
17:05
Speaker 1: and dad.
17:08
Speaker 2: So I said to her, well, that's a really big list.
17:10
Speaker 2: I said, what are the cons and she said, screens
17:14
Speaker 2: are a really big issue. She really struggles to self
17:17
Speaker 2: regulate when it comes to the use of screens, which
17:19
Speaker 2: means there's constant tension between her and ies. I try
17:23
Speaker 2: to help her navigate that space. She sometimes gets bort
17:27
Speaker 2: because she's on her own a lot, and then sometimes
17:33
Speaker 2: feels like the lessons that she's working on and not
17:36
Speaker 2: engaging enough for her. Yeah.
17:37
Speaker 1: That's that's been a big downside of one of the
17:40
Speaker 1: curricula that we're involved with. Is it just feels like
17:43
Speaker 1: it's school at home. Yeah.
17:45
Speaker 2: And so I looked at that list and I said, so,
17:49
Speaker 2: what do you think we should do? And she said,
17:50
Speaker 2: I want to stay home next year And I said okay,
17:54
Speaker 2: I said, and what about starting school in year seven?
17:57
Speaker 2: She said, yeah, I think that that's what I want
17:58
Speaker 2: to do. So at this point, we've got another year.
18:02
Speaker 2: And I want to say I'm ecstatic, right, I want
18:06
Speaker 2: to say that I'm so glad that she's come to
18:09
Speaker 2: this decision for herself. The reality is, I would love
18:15
Speaker 2: her to have the communal learning that she misses. I
18:19
Speaker 2: would love her to have that in an environment that
18:24
Speaker 2: enables her to tap into her strengths and her uniqueness,
18:30
Speaker 2: and it's really hard to find something like that in
18:33
Speaker 2: a system. And so while I would love for her
18:39
Speaker 2: to have those things, I'm so grateful that right now
18:42
Speaker 2: she knows in her heart that what we're doing is
18:45
Speaker 2: actually the very thing that she needs right.
18:47
Speaker 1: Now, really important conversations. To be able to take the time,
18:51
Speaker 1: sit down, and to do the exploration, knowing that there's
18:54
Speaker 1: no expectation at the end of it. It just helps
18:57
Speaker 1: the kids to open up. They feel so heard and
18:58
Speaker 1: seeing the fact that you took notesn't it It means
19:01
Speaker 1: they really pay attention to what they're saying, like they
19:03
Speaker 1: really think about the discussion. Kytie, our time is up.
19:06
Speaker 1: But I've just had a realization for the first time
19:07
Speaker 1: in eighteen years, we're going to only have two kids
19:10
Speaker 1: at school next year. I know we've got a daughter
19:13
Speaker 1: doing year eleven and a daughter doing year six next year.
19:16
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness. That means in two years,
19:19
Speaker 1: but down to one child at school, not that I'm
19:22
Speaker 1: wishing for years. Oh my goodness. Thanks so much for listening.
19:25
Speaker 1: We hope that you've enjoyed our conversation today about roadblocks ADHD,
19:30
Speaker 1: school stuff and a whole lot more. Have a great weekend.
19:33
Speaker 1: The Happy Family podcast is produced by Justin Ruland from
19:35
Speaker 1: Bridge Media, Mim Hammond's provised research had min and all
19:38
Speaker 1: of our other support and if you'd like more info
19:40
Speaker 1: or if you'd like to get in touch, just go
19:42
Speaker 1: to Happy families dot com dot au