The Untypical Parent™ Podcast

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Content Note: This episode includes discussion of foster care, trauma, low mood and suicidal feelings. If these topics are difficult for you, please take care while listening.
 If you are struggling, please consider speaking to someone you trust or seeking support. In the UK & ROI, Samaritans are available 24/7 on 116 123 or at samaritans.org. 
Jordan Garratt, founder of Sensory Class, joins us to tell the story few people know about: the teacher who fell in love with special education, brought AAC and sensory joy into her lessons, and opened her home to children with complex needs, and even more complex histories.
Jordan talks us through foster care: the lows and the highs. The assessment panels and nameless referrals. The school place that should have been a lifeline, but wasn’t. Jordan also shares a drawing she made of a child standing on their hands underwater, and the praise of “you’re doing great”, even though she was drowning.
If you’re a parent navigating SEND, a fellow foster carer, or a professional supporting children and young people in care, receiving respite or adopted, this episode can be a tough listen at times, but it’s also a conversation full of love, honesty and truth.
Thank you Jordan for sharing with us. 

If you would like to connect with Jordan you can find her here:
Website: https://sensoryclassroom.org/
Instagram: Sensory Class
Podcast: Sensory Classroom
The Untypical Parent Podcast needs you. 
If you've got a question you want answered. If you want to let me know your favourite episode. Or just want to reach out & say hi. Your message could be featured on the podcast. 
You can either use the email address in the show notes or you can message me on The Untypical Parent Podcast Instagram account. Just click here 
Support the show
I'm Liz, The Untypical OT. I support parents and carers in additional needs and neurodivergent families to protect against burnout and go from overwhelmed to more moments of ease.
🔗 To connect with me, you can find all my details on Linktree:
https://linktr.ee/the_untypical_ot

And if you'd like to contact me about the podcast please use the text link at the top or you can email at:
[email protected].

Enjoyed the episode, got a suggestion or a question send me a text
In this short series, parents in neurodivergent families tell us what it's really like. In this episode Laura explains "parenting in a neurodivergent family is like riding a bike with a flat tyre, with a blindfold on, one hand tied behind your back… oh and I just realised the other wheel fell off". 

If this episode rings true leave a message in the comments to let other parents know they aren't alone. 
If you'd like to contribute to the show please just leave a comment and you could have an based around your comment. 

The Untypical Parent Podcast needs you. 
If you've got a question you want answered. If you want to let me know your favourite episode. Or just want to reach out & say hi. Your message could be featured on the podcast. 
You can either use the email address in the show notes or you can message me on The Untypical Parent Podcast Instagram account. Just click here 
Support the show
I'm Liz, The Untypical OT. I support parents and carers in additional needs and neurodivergent families to protect against burnout and go from overwhelmed to more moments of ease.
🔗 To connect with me, you can find all my details on Linktree:
https://linktr.ee/the_untypical_ot

And if you'd like to contact me about the podcast please use the text link at the top or you can email at:
[email protected].

Enjoyed the episode, got a suggestion or a question send me a text
In this episode, Laura Kerbey, author and founder of PAST (Positive Assessments, Support and Training), shares her lived experience of growing up undiagnosed with ADHD, and how that shaped not only her childhood but adulthood and parenthood as well.
Laura talks honestly about how deeply she wanted to be a parent, alongside how challenging parenting felt while living with undiagnosed ADHD and Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD). She opens up about the overwhelm, the self-doubt, and the low moments, but also the joy that came with it.
Laura talks about how she and her boys have built a strong, trusting relationship, the kind of relationship so many parents hope for, and what helped her move from survival mode to understanding, compassion, and connection.
I am so grateful to Laura for sharing so openly how she experienced things. This is a raw, validating conversation for parents who feel like parenting is overwhelming them, they should be doing better, and who need reminding that they are not failing.
 Find Laura Online
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
PAST website: https://p-ast.co.uk/

Books by Laura Kerbey (Mentioned in This Episode)
The Parents’ and Professionals’ Simple Guide to PDA
Laura Kerbey & Eliza Fricker
The Kids’ Simple Guide to PDA
Laura Kerbey
The Teen’s Guide to PDA
Laura Kerbey & Eliza Fricker
The (Slightly Distracted) Woman’s Guide to Living with an Adult ADHD Diagnosis
Laura Kerbey & Eliza Fricker
The Educator’s Experience of Pathological Demand Avoidance
An illustrated guide to PDA and learning — Laura Kerbey
The Untypical Parent Podcast needs you. 
If you've got a question you want answered. If you want to let me know your favourite episode. Or just want to reach out & say hi. Your message could be featured on the podcast. 
You can either use the email address in the show notes or you can message me on The Untypical Parent Podcast Instagram account. Just click here 
Support the show
I'm Liz, The Untypical OT. I support parents and carers in additional needs and neurodivergent families to protect against burnout and go from overwhelmed to more moments of ease.
🔗 To connect with me, you can find all my details on Linktree:
https://linktr.ee/the_untypical_ot

And if you'd like to contact me about the podcast please use the text link at the top or you can email at:
[email protected].

Enjoyed the episode, got a suggestion or a question send me a text
In this bonus episode of The Untypical Parent Podcast, I admit something slightly embarrassing: I dropped a ball… a Christmas-shaped ball. Somewhere between broken legs, work deadlines, end-of-term chaos, questionable diary scheduling, and trying to remember if we own wrapping paper (I can't find any and the shops have sold out), I genuinely thought Christmas was still 1.5 weeks away. (It isn’t.)
So, let’s talk about the mental load, especially in neurodivergent families. If your brain feels like an open browser with 86 tabs running, you’re in the right place.
In this episode, I share:
how juggling life as a neurodivergent family can make dates slide right past you,
why parents feel extra pressure at Christmas,
how “dropping a ball” doesn’t make you a bad parent (it makes you a human one),
simple strategies to survive the festive season without combusting,
and why self-compassion should be top of the shopping list.
We chat about lists (and forgetting to look at them), boundaries with family gatherings, tiny adjustments that make big differences, and the power of just stepping outside for a breather when things get a bit much.
Key Takeaways
Neurodivergent parenting = Olympic-level multitasking.
Christmas adds bonus pressure, lights, noise, lists… and more lists.
Feeling unprepared is completely normal (especially this week).
List-making genuinely helps, if you remember where you put the list.
Communicating boundaries with family can save your sanity.
Tiny changes > giant expectations.
Breaks aren’t weaknesses; they’re survival tools.
You don’t have to “do it all” to be a good parent.
Looking back brings perspective; looking forward brings hope.
The Untypical Parent Podcast needs you. 
If you've got a question you want answered. If you want to let me know your favourite episode. Or just want to reach out & say hi. Your message could be featured on the podcast. 
You can either use the email address in the show notes or you can message me on The Untypical Parent Podcast Instagram account. Just click here 
Support the show
I'm Liz, The Untypical OT. I support parents and carers in additional needs and neurodivergent families to protect against burnout and go from overwhelmed to more moments of ease.
🔗 To connect with me, you can find all my details on Linktree:
https://linktr.ee/the_untypical_ot

And if you'd like to contact me about the podcast please use the text link at the top or you can email at:
[email protected].

Enjoyed the episode, got a suggestion or a question send me a text
Untypical Parenting One Year On

The best stories start where the script stops working. Marking a full year of The Untypical Parent Podcast, we sit down with two people who helped shape it from day one, Charlotte from Badger Education, my first-ever guest, and Sam, from Something Profound, the first sponsor, to explore what it really takes to raise neurodivergent kids without a rulebook. This is a celebration, yes, but it’s mostly an unfiltered look at brave choices, messy progress, and the surprising wins that rarely make it into glossy parenting advice.

We dig into the heart of “doing it differently”: stepping away from social norms when they don’t serve your child, surviving the dread of school phone calls and local authority emails, and finding strength in a community that refuses to pretend everything is fine. You’ll hear how Charlotte reframed untypical parenting as courage in action, why Sam chose to pull her daughter from school, and how honest phrases like “we’re figuring this out together” can lower the temperature in hard moments. Along the way we talk sensory regulation that works in real life, running, texture rituals, movement, and small routines that calm busy brains.

There’s plenty of laughter, too. From coaching a bra fitting through a changing-room door to a disastrous upside-down roller coaster, we celebrate family humour as co-regulation and connection. We unpack the mental load behind dinner decisions, the secret superpower of finding lost things, and the micro-milestones that matter: a shorter outburst, a new food tried, a trip that softens a phobia. These stories don’t claim perfection; they show progress you can feel.

If you’re parenting outside the lines, or love someone who is, this anniversary episode offers practical empathy, relatable stories, and a reminder that small steps add up. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs to feel seen today, and leave a review to help other untypical families find us.

Badger Education: Facebook and Instagram
Something Profound: Facebook and Instagram
The Untypical Parent Podcast needs you. 
If you've got a question you want answered. If you want to let me know your favourite episode. Or just want to reach out & say hi. Your message could be featured on the podcast. 
You can either use the email address in the show notes or you can message me on The Untypical Parent Podcast Instagram account. Just click here 
Support the show
I'm Liz, The Untypical OT. I support parents and carers in additional needs and neurodivergent families to protect against burnout and go from overwhelmed to more moments of ease.
🔗 To connect with me, you can find all my details on Linktree:
https://linktr.ee/the_untypical_ot

And if you'd like to contact me about the podcast please use the text link at the top or you can email at:
[email protected].