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Looking for advice from other parents with ADHD and/or autism

Loz

Hi everyone,

I’ve recently been diagnosed with ADHD (ASD referral too) and it’s made me realise how much I’ve been trying to juggle. I’m also raising an autistic/ADHD child, and honestly… some days feel like a lot.

I’d love to hear from other parents experiencing similarly:

How do you manage day-to-day life when both you and your child are neurodivergent?

Do you have routines or little tricks that actually help?

How do you deal with the emotional and sensory overload of parenting?

And do you feel like your own ADHD/autism has affected your child?

I can see how mine has - especially with consistency, routines, and my emotions - and I’m trying hard not to beat myself up for it.

Parents
  • Loz said:
    How do you manage day-to-day life when both you and your child are neurodivergent?

    Alarms, schedules and checklists seem to be the best way. Have the schedules and checklists laminated so you can tick them off as you go and the alarms will remind you where you should be so you can drop any side tasks you went off on and get back to the core of things.

    Allowing some wiggle room in the schedules also helps as it will never go exactly as planned.

    You will have an extra stress from having to track your own lists and that of the children so it helps to allow some time to mellow after the little monsters are out the door and off to school.

    The same for the evenings unfortunately and there will be the tasks like homework and preparing for the next school day for them, the evening meal and whatever your responsibilities are for you too.

    I would try to give them some chores as part of their responsibility each day to get them into a routine if you can. The schedule and checklists come into play here too but need to be more flexible as these tasks are more variable.

    Then finally creating some quiet space for you will be important.

    If you don't know how to meditate then this is a powerful tool to use for a rapid decompress - the downside it can be hard to focus for some ADHD people but it is worth a try. I have many ADHD traits but am not diagnosed and I'm able to use this technique luckily.

    For emotions it is harder - I would suggest getting a therapist to work on this as well as getting better advice on everything else here than I can offer. They can be worth their weight in gold.

    Good luck.

Reply
  • Loz said:
    How do you manage day-to-day life when both you and your child are neurodivergent?

    Alarms, schedules and checklists seem to be the best way. Have the schedules and checklists laminated so you can tick them off as you go and the alarms will remind you where you should be so you can drop any side tasks you went off on and get back to the core of things.

    Allowing some wiggle room in the schedules also helps as it will never go exactly as planned.

    You will have an extra stress from having to track your own lists and that of the children so it helps to allow some time to mellow after the little monsters are out the door and off to school.

    The same for the evenings unfortunately and there will be the tasks like homework and preparing for the next school day for them, the evening meal and whatever your responsibilities are for you too.

    I would try to give them some chores as part of their responsibility each day to get them into a routine if you can. The schedule and checklists come into play here too but need to be more flexible as these tasks are more variable.

    Then finally creating some quiet space for you will be important.

    If you don't know how to meditate then this is a powerful tool to use for a rapid decompress - the downside it can be hard to focus for some ADHD people but it is worth a try. I have many ADHD traits but am not diagnosed and I'm able to use this technique luckily.

    For emotions it is harder - I would suggest getting a therapist to work on this as well as getting better advice on everything else here than I can offer. They can be worth their weight in gold.

    Good luck.

Children
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