🎧 Episode 3 – Prevent Training, Parenting Pressure & Permission to Feel
Dan and Ben reflect on how institutional systems like Prevent training can unintentionally stigmatise neurodivergent traits. It sparks an emotional, wide-ranging chat about justice, advocacy, and the subtle harm of misrepresentation.
But this episode isn’t just about systems. It’s also about the stuff at home: giving your kid Calpol without a meltdown, seeing your teenager self-regulate in a crowd, and how a trip to Tesco can undo you when you’re running on empty.
This is one of our rawest episodes yet — where we unpack shame, supermarket stress, emotional resilience, and the lifelong balancing act of being neurodivergent parents to neurodivergent kids.
💬 Topics this episode:
- The Prevent training controversy and autism misrepresentation
- Feelings of injustice, rage, and the power of feedback
- Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria in everyday life
- Parenting while masking (and noticing you’re masking)
- Boundary setting with teens and respecting their independence
- Toilet wins, texture issues, and the sensory minefield of Calpol
- Bath time negotiations and scoring system updates
- Solo parenting, emotional labour, and being “on” all the time
👇 CHAPTERS BELOW for easy navigation.
00:00 – Intro & Welcome
01:00 – Weather chat and podcast energy shift
01:30 – Prevent Training: What triggered us this week
04:00 – Autism, radicalisation, and narrative bias in education
06:30 – When training videos get it wrong
09:00 – Narrow portrayals of neurodivergence
12:00 – From Prevent to parenting emotions: three-word check-in
13:30 – Joy, despair, and hydration failure
15:00 – Wins vs. Challenges (and the expansion of the format)
18:00 – Dan’s raw week: rejection, solo parenting, and emotional walls
22:30 – Behaviour is communication — and what that really means
24:00 – The Calpol-on-the-ceiling story
26:00 – Sensory food issues and being a super sleuth
29:00 – Toilet wins and emotional highs in the middle of chaos
30:30 – Teen boundaries and the “shepherd, not engineer” mindset
32:00 – Mutual respect, negotiation, and raising safe, self-aware teens
34:00 – Ben’s challenge: supermarket shame spiral and emotional overload
39:30 – The invisible weight of "tutting" and social feedback
44:00 – Hair dye, sensory processing, and when you’re not welcome in the room
46:00 – Shoes-on productivity hack (does it work?)
48:00 – Rejection Sensitivity in everyday moments
51:00 – Community, compassion, and navigating difficult comparisons
54:00 – Services are stretched: exclusions, SEND support and local politics
58:00 – Why “comparison is the thief of joy” (except when it isn’t)
01:01:00 – Neurodivergent parenting and sharing the emotional load
01:03:00 – Diagnosis check-in: where things stand
01:05:00 – Looking ahead: solo parenting, the flower show, and the Euros
01:08:00 – Garden bath hacks and muddy memories
01:10:00 – Bath score of the week: a solid 8 (with shared duties!)
01:11:30 – Outro: You're doing great. You're not alone.
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📧 Contact: [email protected]
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