Show Notes
What it's about:
In this very first episode of The Low Demand Parenting Podcast, I share the story behind my journey into low demand parenting. It all started when my middle child faced autistic burnout during the pandemic, and I realized that traditional parenting approaches were breaking us down. Through this episode, I explain how letting go of expectations and embracing trust, connection, and safety changed everything for our family. I also give a glimpse into what future episodes will cover, including interviews, mailbag questions, and more real-time reflections on parenting, neurodiversity, and behavior.
00:00 Introduction to the Podcast
01:26 The Beginning of Our Low Demand Journey
02:09 A Turning Point: The Breaking Day
04:09 Understanding Autistic Burnout
05:36 Discovering Low Demand Parenting
07:44 The Origins of Low Demand Parenting
09:52 Developing the Low Demand Method
10:48 The Core Principles of Low Demand Parenting
12:54 Addressing Common Concerns
13:52 The Importance of Safety and Connection
15:37 Conclusion and Future Topics
Ready to Start Dropping Demands?
If you’re ready to dive deeper into low demand parenting, I’ve got some great FREE resources to help you get started!
Quiz: Why is Everything So Hard? – This quick, insightful quiz will help you understand why parenting might feel so overwhelming right now and give you personalized steps to lighten the load. Take the quiz here.
Free Chapter: Low Demand Parenting – Curious about my book, Low Demand Parenting? Download the first chapter for free and start your journey toward more ease and joy. Get the free chapter here.
Transcript:
This is a new podcast, and so we are going to be exploring in this episode more about how I came to be talking to you in your earbuds about low demand parenting, about my own journey, and what is low demand. In future podcasts, we're going to have all kinds of great stuff. We're going to have some of my favorite interviews with parents and professors and brilliant thinkers.
All around the questions of parenting, behavior, and neurodiversity. There's also going to be some mailbag episodes where you can send me your questions and I will reply directly to you. As well as some of my own thoughts, as they're evolving in real time, about what it means to practice this radical and beautiful parenting style.
Our story with Low Demand started five years ago. When my middle kid was five, turning six, we started kindergarten process for him. I'll note in particular that this was during the pandemic, and so everything with school was The option for online kindergarten was terrible. He hated the fact that he couldn't go to the playground, that his experience was so different from his older brothers.
He hated the fact that he wasn't making friends and that every single Zoom room was chaotic and overwhelming. We tried school environment, after school environment, and everyone crumbled. And then one day I was desperate, so desperate for this school to work out. And. He was telling me with his body and his energy, no, this is not for me today.
And I leaned on the dominant parenting narrative that I had been handed, which is to see this moment as anxiety and to push through. If we avoid something, then anxiety wins and it's only going to get worse. So he needs to face that. this today or else tomorrow is going to be 10 times harder and it's only going to snowball.
And so I picked him up and I cooed nice words in his ear like, I love you, I support you, you can do this. And I passed him off into his teacher's hands. She had to fully restrain him in order to keep him inside the school area. And I turned and walked away as he screamed at me to come back. And I share that knowing that many of you have had not just one, but dozens of moments like this, and we have two.
It just happens that this was the before and after day for us. This was the day that broke everything. If it didn't break everything, would we have gone on like t
More from Low Demand Parenting
In Part 2 of my conversation with Dr. Katherine Olson, we deep dive into PDA and why so many of the strategies we're told to use can backfire for PDA kids. We talk about autonomy, neuroception, connection, and the invisible energy underneath our words—and why relationship is probably the most powerful intervention we have.
In this first part of a deep dive into PDA from a professional's lens, I’m talking with Dr. Katherine Olson, a clinical psychologist with extensive training in autism, early childhood intervention, and neurodevelopment. But Katie is also a parent who had to completely rethink what she thought she knew clinically, when her own child didn't fit the frameworks she'd been trained to use. Next week we'll talk more about the definition of PDA itself and why so many common parenting strategies fail so spectacularly for PDAers.
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