🎧 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.

💡 If this episode moved you:

🔔 Subscribe for weekly episodes

👍 Like the episode — it helps more families find us

💬 Share your story in the comments or DM us on Instagram

📧 Contact: [email protected]

📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @NeuroDadversePodcast

🔗 #NeurodiverseParenting #SENDLife #ADHDAwareness #AutismAdvocacy y #ParentingPodcast #EmotionalRegulation #NeurodivergentDad #PreventTraining #NDLife #NeuroDadverse

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.