Author: The Autism & ADHD Diaries

As a child I absolutely adored the candlelit church service at Christmas. We would sing 9 carols and here 9 lessons or stories from the bible, surrounded by the beautiful glow of Christmas. Needless to say, nowadays we can't attend services like this (at the moment anyway). Kiddo's sensory needs and lack of safety awareness [...]

I saw some cartoons recently that really made me laugh! It was 2.45am as I scrolled through these drawings of an exhausted mum, surrounded by chaos in her house, with shit on her sleeve, nappy bins over flowing and spending her date night with her partner conked out on the sofa. Ah those days of [...]

Recently I invited a little boy to kiddo's upcoming birthday party. I don't think I have ever seen a parent so happy that her child had received an invite, for him. Not as a tag along, not as a family invite, just for him. It made me wonder where it all goes wrong for our [...]

This is probably something that we all feel but no one talks about. So I'm going to write about it in the hope it makes one or two of you feel better. We all want to spend time with our children. Meaningful time, where we engage with them in an interest and really build that [...]

It was kiddo's uncle's funeral yesterday. We thought so much of him that we made him kiddo's god father too. His beliefs, his passions and his moral outlook on life were exactly what we wanted kiddo to look up to. I lost count yesterday how many times people asked me how kiddo was and how [...]

My husband and I dropped Kiddo to Saturday club this morning. Once a month a charity based at his school run a fun activity day so that parents can spend time together or concentrate on their other children for a few hours. Hubby and I hardly ever get time to ourselves, but recently we have [...]

The other day a friend knocked on my door. She had a present for kiddo and being a fellow SEND mum and parent to an autistic child she's one of those people who just "gets it". She asked when I was free for coffee and we started to swap dates. "What days do you work?" [...]

The other day my husband came to me and spoke a sentence that's been bouncing around my brain for a number of days now. He was worried about my stress levels and said, without any malace or ill intention, "you need to come back to the real world for a bit". What did he mean? [...]

I quite often get asked what it's like to parent a child with additional needs. This question is normally accompanied by "I just don't know how you do it" or "I know I couldn't do it". I've struggled for a while to explain to people just how it does feel, and how sometimes you have [...]

There's been a lot of coverage in the media recently about the positive impact that assistant dogs can have on families with autistic children. I couldnt agree more. Dog are fabulous companions, very loyal and loving and can have a marvellous calming effect. BUT, get the wrong dog, and the consequences could be disastrous. With [...]