Unknown Speaker 0:04
Hello, I'm Sharon Collon and you are listening to the ADHD families podcast. I am a mom of three beautiful boys with ADHD. I love being a mum. But my home life was absolute chaos. And the stress of daily life had a terrible effect on my health. My husband had so many horror filled stories of growing up with ADHD that I decided I wanted to change the experience for my little boys. So I got to work. And I systematically changed and streamlined my family's lives to suit the ADHD brain. And now that I have my family on track, I want to help yours. Do you want to live with your beautiful kids that is more functional, fun and full of joy? Let's explore together the wonderful and sometimes wacky world of raising kids with ADHD.
Unknown Speaker 0:59
Hello, and welcome to the very first episode of the ADHD families Podcast. I'm so excited to have you here. Now today's episode, I'm going to be talking a little bit about the functional families story and what you can expect in the podcast going forward. Because I really want this to be a place a safe place for you to be inspired and get some practical tools on how you can help your family. Dysfunctional family was created to support families just like mine families with kids with ADHD. So I'm giving give you a little backstory about that now. So my husband grew up, he had very severe ADHD and in when he was in school, he struggled with it big time. It was like the 80s 90s. And we didn't have the knowledge about ADHD that we do today. And he grew up with this big stigma, believing that he was a naughty kid. He was never invited to birthday parties, he was pretty much banned from the classroom used to get into lots of fights, because he who understood his ADHD and supported him in that way. His parents were wonderful in supporting him. But there wasn't the knowledge that we have today about the framework that we can put in place to help kids with ADHD. And so when my first son was diagnosed, I knew he wasn't a surprise to me, I knew that he had something going on because him and my husband are two peas in a pod, they aren't exactly the same, they may as well be the same person. So I knew there was something going on for him. And when he was diagnosed formally, I looked around for some support. So I could find lots of things about how to help the child and strategies for the child specifically, but there was nothing on how we could operate as a family and our home life was chaos. It was madness, as you would have heard in the intro. We had Anthony who couldn't regulate Zevia, who could regulate there was stuff going everywhere me who was just getting burnt out. And so I began started, I began to research ADHD and experiment, I ran experiments on my own family to see if I could find some strategies to help my family I was interested in anything that would make our lives easier as a family, and anything that would support Xavier and becoming a functional adult, because I really wanted him to have a different experience to what Anthony had had growing up. And I used to run these crazy little experiments of and our family, we tried and tested every diet therapy that we could to see if I could help my little boy and I documented everything. And we really came up with some strategies that work. Some were spectacular fails. But I wanted to increase my knowledge about ADHD before going on studying, studying it formally as I am now. And in that time of running these experiments, I had two other little boys that also have ADHD and we've got some other letters in there as well. We've got some Tourette's we've got some SPD some odd you guys know all those little what those stand for. So we've got a complicated home life. And what I was finding is that I was just burning out. It was really quite challenging for me as the primary caregiver my husband's away a lot for work, he works long hours and I was just buckling under the pressure of raising three kids that are such high need and needs a needed so much from me all the time. And lots of lots of support. So I started once I documented what was working and what wasn't working, I started looking at at you know, trialing different systems using visual cues and different things that I could do to make those predictable problems that we have as a family you know those times like it's not the big meltdown. So I find exhaust us it's all those little points of conflict that you face day in day out that really grinds your gears and grind you down. As I was looking at putting different framework around those points of friction are predictable problems. So I can make those moments easier for ourselves. So we could get the kids to school without feeling like you've done a whole day already and crying in the car like they used to do, or get them to bed at night, and feel like you've got some, you've got a little bit more energy to give, and a little bit more energy. To read them a bedtime story, you're not just thinking, Oh my God, no one talked to me because it has been a hell of a day. So all these systems and strategies, I'm really excited to share with you and share a little bit about what we do as a family, what works, what doesn't work, little trials that come up, I often say new levels, new devils as kids get older. So a little bit of background about our family, we've got Anthony, who has, has probably the most severe ADHD that I've ever come across. Now I'm an ADHD coach. And I still think he is on the most extreme end, especially in terms of hyperactivity. And then we've got Xavier, who's currently 13 Ashton, who's nine, and Harvey, who's seven. And we've got some definite ways that we can help you, as a family have an easier, happier, live a life that's full of joy with ADHD, we know it's important to leave room for joy, life cannot be all a struggle. It's just not sustainable to be stressed all the time. So I'm really excited to be sharing with you some strategies to help you and your family as well, a little bit about what we do here at the functional family. If you haven't already, check out our website, it's WW dot the functional family.com. And we have a six week online program that steps you through everything that you need to know, as a parent of ADHD kids, I do one on one coaching. And we also have a membership coming out in 2023, as well. So we've got lots of things, there's lots of free resources under the podcast and blogs as well. So jump in there and get involved take what you need to from the website, there is a free, really large supportive Facebook group. It's called the functional ADHD and families, the functional family group, there's a link to it on the website as well. So just jump in there and you can give and receive support and you know, really have a large community surround, you have families that are going through a similar journey to you. It's a beautiful, kind, supportive space. And I really encourage you to get involved because one of the things that we hear from parents is that how isolating this journey can be, especially when you're surrounded by people that don't understand ADHD or are beautiful neurodivergent kids. And so you can you've got that community there waiting for you waiting to support you. Now this podcast is going to be full of practical tips, we're going to make sure that we finish everything on some key takeaways or things that you can do. To make your life easier, make your life more streamlined health help raise functional adults with ADHD or work with ADHD brain, the episodes will run there'll be an individual one with me, where I'm talking about a specific topic for the day, we will also interview some key players in the industry about ADHD, maybe their story of being neurodivergent, or different helpful tips that you can take away from these wonderful interviews. And then I'm going to be featuring you guys as well. So I would love it love it. If you can write in maybe a story that you have about ADHD, maybe it's a way that that you were diagnosed or your child was diagnosed, maybe it's it's something that you've overcome. Maybe it's how you've used ADHD as an advantage. So you can send them to me at Sharon at the functional family.com. And I will read them out you can remain anonymous, but it's about giving your story and your family's story of voice as well. And different ways that we can share and become a community and hear from other people, not just my family as well. I want to hear from you guys. So feel free to write into those listener tails episodes. And then we're going to have a q&a component so people can write into me with with any issues that they're facing. And we can brainstorm some solutions for those predictable problems that they might be experiencing. So I'm so excited to have you join us and welcome to the community. I am super proud to have this wonderful company that's helped so many families and I'm so happy to have you here as a part of it. Thank you and I can't wait for you to see what's coming your way.
Unknown Speaker 9:32
Thank you for listening to this episode of the ADHD families podcast. If you loved it, please share it on your socials. I want this to start a conversation about ADHD. If you want to make this mum do a little happy dance, please leave a review on iTunes. If you would like to know more about what we do, check out the functional family.com I truly hope that you enjoyed this podcast and you use it to create A wonderful effective joyful life with your beautiful children
