Special Needs Supermom podcast

Making the leap from pediatric to adult healthcare can be overwhelming. In this episode, I discuss what to expect, how to prepare, and how to support and advocate for your special needs’ teen through this transition.  Please note: How transition care is handled can depend on the country you live in, the health care system of said country, but also insurance. I am based in the Netherlands so theref...

From Pediatric to Adult Care: Navigating the Transition. Suddenly you just had your last appointment with your kiddo at the pediatric hospital. I felt overwhelmed with all.the.feelings. Memories of the past, the uncertainty of the future. Knowing it will never be the same: the time you get with the doctor, the bond you often build over the years. I recorded this episode in the car just after I dro...

How to Enjoy Holiday Family Gatherings - My Top Tips after 20 Years Special Needs and family gatherings during the holiday season. A perfect combo for meltdowns, tantrums and disappointments. And I am not talking about just your kiddo. With 20 years of experience, here are my top tips that will help make gatherings and travel as enjoyable as possible. Preparation tips for your kiddo and your famil...

Therapy. It can be super helpful. If you get the right therapist for your kid. Because otherwise it can do more harm than good. In this episode I share the hard lesson we learned last time, why it went wrong and what could help you when looking for the right therapist for your kid. Stay sane 🧘 Stay happy 💃 mom. Nadine Need some more help to find and recharge your superpowers?     Follow me on: -...

Monday morning brain. With three health care appointments and a funeral in the coming days I really need to get out my planner and schedule in essential relax and recharge time.  It sounds so easy. Yet somehow it's suddenly 11:30 AM and I still have to get started. Ugh. Why is this so hard? 11:30 I wanted to be at the gym, yet here I am haven't done anything yet. Or have I... Let me take...

Special Needs and the Christmas season. Recipe for overwhelm and meltdowns. That's why in this episode I share my favorite grounding exercise to stop the overwhelm and find my inner calm.  Even when you're in a crowded supermarket or at a big family gathering. Plus an extra exercise using the 5 senses that can also help snap out of the overwhelm. If your kid needs a little help to snap o...

About why you should never wait till you really have the time to start following your dream or pick up that hobby you love. Because let's be honest, as a special needs supermom there is always something going on or something to do. Stay sane 🧘 Stay happy 💃 mom. Nadine Need some more help to find and recharge your superpowers?     Follow me on: - IG: @specialneedssupermompodcast  - FB: www.f...

One more week to go before schools are out! And woman, am I tired pfffff. Those last few weeks are always packed with stress. But this year really took the cake.  So, I took out an old tool once taught to wonderboy, which helped me see when it’s time to recharge and how long I really need. On hectic times it is also so easy to forget to invest in couple time. Last week we unexpectedly had an eveni...

An episode about why it’s a good thing we don’t know the future when we get the diagnosis of our kid(s) or ourselves, why we shouldn't want to know, why we can't even know, and that today’s decision can be changed tomorrow. Stay sane 🧘 Stay happy 💃 mom. Nadine * Need some more help to find and recharge your superpowers?  Follow me on: - IG: @specialneedssupermompodcast  - FB: www.faceb...

I was off the grid for a few weeks. Again. That’s why this episode is all about – the need to – go off the grid every so often as a special needs mom and/or woman and why you should not have to say sorry for doing so. Or feel the need to say sorry for anything else for that matter, like your messy house, having sandwiches for dinner, cancel lunch with a friend for the 2nd time, the tantrum of your...

Did you know that when your teen is dealing with a chronic illness or is neurodivergent, it significantly increases their chance on depression?  In episode 82 of the Special Needs Supermom Podcast, I talk about possible signs your teen is dealing with depression. What to say and do. And what not. Including tips from teens to parents.  Plus: why it is so important you double your relax and recharge...

The hardest thing I find as special needs mom? Dealing with the relapses and depression of my kids. Meds that don't work any longer; being different; losing friends because you're no fun to play with; not getting that internship because of your condition; constantly tired because of your chronic illness or because your brain is wired differently than the outside world; not being able to...

Goal setting with your Special Needs Child. It’s a recipe for failure and low self-esteem:  Setting goals for your kid instead of with them.  Only setting goals focused on the outcome like high scores and being able to go to college and or university.  Compare your special needs child and decide how good your kid is doing, based on what their average peers can do.  There are more roads that lead t...

Special Needs Mom - How to have an awesome start of the year, your goals or anything really. In episode 79 of the Special Needs Supermom Podcast I talk about why I go into and love hibernating during the week between Christmas and New Year; how I don’t like to start the year with a bang; how I don’t come up with excuses to stay of the grid (and neither should you) and how I have an awesome start o...

Top tips to truly enjoy the holidays and prevent overwhelm and meltdowns with your special needs child. December is one of the most challenging months for special needs children. And their mom. Stress, overwhelm, meltdowns… we had it all. Until a few years ago, we changed a few things. It made all the difference for especially wonderboy. And me.   * Hope these tips will help you and your family re...

Yay! It’s my one year ADHD anniversary!!!! Why I celebrate this?  And why I think you should celebrate getting a diagnose or label? Because it helps you move forward, understand and accept yourself or your kid, and find the help you or your kid need. Did my diagnose, meds or therapy change me?  I still don’t finish sentences. Still happily dive into rabbit holes. Am still a very creative person wi...

Why you should have a dopamenu or happymenu for your special needs child and as special needs mom. A dopamenu or happymenu as I like to call it, is your instant guide to snap out of overwhelm, stress, when you’re stuck in your brain, when anxiety is taking over, can’t focus on your (home)work. It’s a really great life hack to rewire your brain. How it works? It’s kinda like a restaurant menu but i...

If you’ve been wondering what I was up to with all the irregular podcasts and posts the last couple of months… well this is it. A nice combination of perimenopause & ADHD, everyday life as a special needs mom and long covid. Enter chronic fatigue...  When I got the long covid diagnose a couple of weeks ago I was like really??!! Another thing I can do without? Are you freaking kidding me???!!!...

Let’s just be honest, sometimes you just need a good cry special needs mom – and 10 cookies. No need to sugar coat it. Sometimes the whole special needs life just sucks and there’s nothing that can change that. It’s totally understandable, totally fine and it is actually healthy to acknowledge that things sometimes suck. Days you cry. Days you grieve. Days you’re just lost. Days you are beyond tir...

In this episode of the Special Needs Supermom Podcast, I share how to keep sane as a special needs mom during the start of the school year – or any day for that matter.  * The start of the school year can cause a lot of stress. Besides your special needs kid being anxious about a new teacher and new (or old) classmates, as a special needs mom we have to deal with the meltdowns; inform new teachers...

In this episode of the Special Needs Supermom Podcast: Best tips to get through the bad days as a special needs mom. It’s been one of those weeks as a special needs parent. Just plain awful. And when your special needs kid is not doing well, we don’t feel well, right mom? In this episode I share how I get through these weeks as a special needs mom. What I do, and especially what I don’t do to rech...

Summer tips for Special Needs Parents to relax, recharge and have fun. Not going on a trip this summer or just don’t know what to do with your kids all these long summer days? With most of my family members being homebodies and uhm gamers, it is a bit easier for me these days. But like most kids they are tired at the end of an intensive school year, wonderboy still has a hard time with the transit...

Chronique fatigue in kids and teens is not about going to bed too late. It’s a long-term condition marked by extreme fatigue or tiredness that doesn’t go away with rest. Like Supergirl’s doctor explained: it’s like having a jetlag 24/7 and no matter how much you sleep or naps you take, it won’t go away. It effects school attendance, school results, physical health, and even worse: a kid’s social l...

In this episode of the Special Needs Supermom Podcast I talk about signs and symptoms of special needs children: real issue or talked into?  * When you’re autistic you’re anti-social; when there’s a smog weather alarm you have to stay inside when asthmatic; all kids taking MTX-injections get ‘allergic’ to the color yellow, the smell of fresh cut grass is enough to trigger an asthmatic allergy atta...

Report card grading for children with special needs. Or better: celebrating your C-Grade kid. Wrapping up the school year there is a lot of attention for the kids that excelled. The A-Grade, honor rol, 3.6 and higher GPAl students. But what if you really tried hard and just don’t get past that C? You do the best you can, but the only thing you hear and see is that you should just try harder, study...