Too Peas In A Podcast Mandy Hose and Kate Mulholland

Kate and Mandy talk to extraordinary Erin - mum to peashoot Sarah who she adopted at eight years of age, twenty years ago, when Erin was only nineteen years old herself.

Erin shares the remarkable story of how she became a Pea mum unexpectedly to Sarah, who has Rett Syndrome. Erin had known and loved Sarah since she was a baby, and took over her care in a heartbeat when her birth mother relinquished care directly to her.

Erin faced numerous practical and social challenges when taking on her care, such as needing to give up work, experiencing homelessness and losing many of her friends. She talks about being thrown right in the deep end of Pea parenting and learning on the job about dealing with specialists, feeding challenges, schooling and post-schooling options while often facing a level of disrespect and dismissal from professionals for being so young and inexperienced. She’s fortunately had a pretty smooth and positive experience of the NDIS though, and currently has 3-4 support workers currently providing Sarah with care.  

Erin talks about her ongoing journey towards reaching her lifelong goal of being a special education teacher – a job she’s wanted to do ever since she was fifteen years old. She also shares the nerve-wracking story of packing up and taking Sarah off for a caravanning trip around Australia for twelve months - and finding herself a long way from home in Busselton, WA just when COVID-19 hit Australia!  She also talks about the love, support, family and community she’s been fortunate to find through a great local church.

Erin also shares some very good advice - find the rainbow in every day, no matter what.

Plus:

·     Buy our book The Invisible Life Of Us to keep it on the bookshelves so all the other Peas can find it!

·     Get a signed copy and deck yourself out in some excellent Too Peas merch here!

·     Listen to our Spotify playlist – Too Peas: Songs Our Guest Peas Love

·     Melbourne forecast for Thursday March 10 – Partly cloudy, 21 degrees

·      Join our Facebook Hangout

·      Find us on YouTube

Thank you for supporting Too Peas In A Podcast! Don’t forget to rate and review

Contact us here:

Website: www.toopeasinapodcast.com.au

Email: [email protected]

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

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

Kate and Mandy talk to Fox Sports journalist/podcaster/author/Pea Sam Squires!

Sam is a Pea mum to two gorgeous girls Immi and Elle. Immi was born premmie at 32 weeks and Elle was born at 37 weeks with a cleft lip and cleft palate.

Sam shares her pregnancy, birth and NICU journey with Immi and all the challenges, trauma and guilt she experienced along the way. She also shares about her ‘healing’ second pregnancy with Elle and the additional challenges that came along with her diagnoses, subsequent surgeries and speech and feeding challenges – all during COVID no less!

Check out her podcast On Her Game, where Sam speaks to elite sportswomen about their challenges, triumphs and setbacks, in an effort to get to know the person behind the athlete and learn what it takes to get to the top of their field. Also, find her on Instagram through @samsquiers

Plus:

·      Mandy was a guest on new podcast Weepies, which is all about movies which make you cry, and talked all about Anne Of Green Gables.  

·      Kate is now a massive fan of Frock Hudson

·     Buy our book The Invisible Life Of Us to keep it on the bookshelves so all the other Peas can find it!

·     Get a signed copy and deck yourself out in some excellent Too Peas merch here!

·     Listen to our Spotify playlist – Too Peas: Songs Our Guest Peas Love

·     Melbourne forecast for Thursday March 3 – Showers developing, 19 degrees

·      Join our Facebook Hangout

·      Find us on YouTube

Thank you for supporting Too Peas In A Podcast! Don’t forget to rate and review

Contact us here:

Website: www.toopeasinapodcast.com.au

Email: [email protected]

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

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

Kate and Mandy tackle a very challenging topic for Pea families – the pain and heartache we feel when our peashoots aren’t invited to the party.

From being the only one in the class excluded, to watching siblings be invited more times than they’ll ever be, and handling all the trickiness and pain that comes with it; Kate and Mandy face the truth of it in order to raise awareness, help inspire change and offer a new opportunity to ‘call in’ people in the spirit of empathy, compassion and inclusion. 

On a lighter note, stay tuned to the end to hear some good news about the return of our live shows! More details coming soon.

Plus:

·      Mandy is loving easy to watch Murderville on Netflix

·      Mia Freedman made both Kate and Mandy laugh with her bra over dress antics

·      Buy our book The Invisible Life Of Us! 

·      Get a signed copy and deck yourself out in some excellent Too Peas merch here!

·      Listen to our Spotify playlist – Too Peas: Songs Our Guest Peas Love

·      Melbourne forecast for Thursday February 24 – Humid, shower or two, 24 degrees

·      Join our Facebook Hangout

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

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

DISCLAIMER - PLEASE NOTE BEFORE LISTENING: As always, this episode is about the perspective and story of the person being interviewed. There is a 4 minute discussion (beginning about 22 minutes in) in which David talks about ABA therapy. At the time I was recording this, I was unaware of ABA and the controversy that has grown up around it and the strong feelings associated with it amongst many people. Please be assured that letting the guest touch on the topic is in no way an endorsement of the guest's approach, and this is in no way a personal or Too Peas endorsement of ABA. The conversation was about so much more than that topic, but I am beginning to understand why this issue is such a serious one for many. Thank you

It was an incredibly heartening and gentle conversation with Bean and OverPea, David Warner all the way from South Carolina! I loved chatting with him.

Here are some links to David's incredible advocacy work on behalf of his Bean-Sprout, Zakk.

Autism advocate announces run for Horry County SC school board | Myrtle Beach Sun News (myrtlebeachonline.com)

School District Violating ADA By Barring Behavior Therapist, Suit Claims Disability Scoop

Lawsuit demands Horry County School District allow autism-specific therapy services | WPDE

School district officials struggling with parent concerns about special education services | Education | myhorrynews.com

Father and Behavior Analyst work to bring resources to parents of children with Autism | WPDE

Myrtle Beach declares April ‘Autism Advocacy Month’ (wmbfnews.com)

Horry County Schools forms committees to look into ABA therapists for autistic students (wmbfnews.com)

Parents of children autism want ABA therapy offered in Horry County schools | WPDE

David Warner - View Instructor (behaviorlive.com)

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

Kate and Mandy talk to Kelly, the amazing person responsible for Pea favourite song ‘the Belong song’ - A Love Song To The Internet! Kelly is the Head of Brand, Communications and Culture at Belong, Australia's first carbon-neutral mobile and internet provider, and is also vision impaired. 

Kelly shares her early experiences of bullying and exclusion at high school which inspired and motivated her to always strive to be “intellectually superior” to everyone else. Kelly talks about her experiences of leaving school, studying music at university and then facing overt discrimination and barriers when seeking to start her career and earn a living.

Kelly was successful in obtaining a role at Telstra, Belong’s parent company, where she was determined to exceed expectations and prove that there were no barriers to her achievement and success. She eventually played a key role in bringing accessibility and inclusion into the design of Telstra products and services.

Kelly also talks about the gorgeous guide dogs who helped transform her life by breaking down social barriers and enabling her greater independence. Follow her black Lab and very good doggo @velvetthevenerable on Instagram.

Kelly, Kate and Mandy talk about her role at Belong, their love of the Belong song and the power of the Internet to promote belonging, connection and inclusion for everyone. They also talk about the importance of ‘calling in’ people, rather than ‘calling out’ people if they make mistakes while learning to be more inclusive. Kelly also says give Peas the golden advice to make sure you “don’t be too embarrassing” and give peashoots as much agency as possible, as there’s “nothing about us without us”!

Plus:

·      Mandy is savouring the podcast The Trojan Horse Affair and Kate recommends Sweet Bobby

·      Buy our book The Invisible Life Of Us! 

·      Get a signed copy and deck yourself out in some excellent Too Peas merch here!

·      Listen to our Spotify playlist – Too Peas: Songs Our Guest Peas Love

·      Melbourne forecast for Thursday February 17 – Possible early shower, 24 degrees

·      Join our Facebook Hangout

·      Find us on YouTube

Thank you for supporting Too Peas In A Podcast! Don’t forget to rate and review

Contact us here:

Website: www.toopeasinapodcast.com.au

Email: [email protected]

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

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

We’re celebrating  Feeding Tube Awareness Week with six very special guests! Melanie Dimmitt, the author of amazing book Special and creator of The Blend magazine bring together a bunch of tight-knit ‘tubie’ community members, parents and business owners to have a chat and share the details of their huge Feeding Tube Awareness Week giveway!

We welcome:

·      Sarah from Wholesome Blends 

·      Stacey from Tubie Fun

·      Amy from Miracle Mumma

·      Chloe from The Travelling Tubie Project

·      Julie from Wonsie

This fabulous tubie team share stories about a range of topics including their biggest tube feeding blunders, their struggles and hopes for the future, the parallels between the premmie and tubie communities, designing better and longer-lasting printed tube tapes, travelling with tubie kids, creating the most inclusive clothing for tube-fed kids and adults, plus making fun and stylish accessories for tubie equipment!

Feeding Tube Awareness Week runs from 6-12 February and the team are doing a bunch of giveways on their socials all week. All you need to do is follow their social media pages (find them through the links above, or keep on eye on the Too Peas socials) to find out how you can win some amazing tubie prizes.

Plus:

·      Mandy is getting a lot of support from her friendly AI mental health assistant Woebot

·      Buy our book The Invisible Life Of Us! 

·      Get a signed copy and deck yourself out in some excellent Too Peas merch here!

·      Listen to our Spotify playlist – Too Peas: Songs Our Guest Peas Love

·      Melbourne forecast for Thursday October 14 – Showers developing, 19 degrees

·      Join our Facebook Hangout

·      Find us on YouTube

Thank you for supporting Too Peas In A Podcast! Don’t forget to rate and review

Contact us here:

Website: www.toopeasinapodcast.com.au

Email: [email protected]

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