🌀 Parenting While Neurodivergent: Navigating Chaos with Courage and Grace

Parenting is a full-body, full-brain experience. For neurodivergent parents—those with ADHD, autism, sensory processing differences, or other cognitive variations—it can feel like juggling fire while walking a tightrope. But it can also be a masterclass in resilience, innovation, and radical empathy.

🧩 The Double Layer of Complexity

Neurodivergent parents often face two simultaneous realities:

• Managing their own sensory, emotional, or executive functioning needs
• Supporting children—who may also be neurodivergent—with structure, care, and advocacy

This dual navigation requires extraordinary mental flexibility and self-awareness.

🔍 Strengths That Shine

Neurodivergent parents bring unique gifts to the table:

• Hyperfocus becomes deep engagement: When present, you're fully present.
• Pattern recognition fuels insight: You notice what others miss—subtle shifts in mood, behavior, or environment.
• Creative problem-solving: You invent systems, rituals, and hacks that work for your household, not someone else’s ideal.

🛠 Strategies That Support, Not Suppress

You don’t need to parent like a neurotypical person. You need tools that honor your brain’s wiring:

• Visual schedules and tactile reminders: Replace mental checklists with external cues.
• Low-stimulation zones: Create spaces where you and your child can decompress.
• Time-blocking with grace: Structure your day in chunks, but allow for detours.

💬 The Inner Dialogue

Many neurodivergent parents wrestle with guilt, shame, or imposter syndrome. But your parenting isn’t defined by perfection—it’s defined by presence.

• “I forgot the appointment” doesn’t mean “I don’t care.”
• “I need quiet” doesn’t mean “I’m not loving.”
• “I’m overwhelmed” doesn’t mean “I’m failing.”

🧭 Reclaiming the Narrative

At MSI Press, we believe in stories that reflect lived truth. Parenting while neurodivergent isn’t a deficit—it’s a different kind of brilliance. One that deserves visibility, validation, and voice. 

This post was inspired by the book, I Love My Kids, But I Don't Always Like Them.

Book Description:

Selected as Independent Authors' Network Book of the Year as the Outstanding Parenting Book and winner of the Literary Titan Gold Award, I Love My Kids, But I Don't Always Like Them, is the ultimate survival guide for parents living through one of the strangest times in history. This " how to guide" will support you even if you are exhausted and burnt out in improving your child(ren)'s behavior. Written by an expert with 20 years of experience in behavioral observation in the classroom, in overnight camp, and more. Franki's storyteller cadence helps the book to read as if it's a casual conversation and pep talk between two parents over coffee. Franki is raw, authentic, and honest about her own "mom fails" and what she has learned in her own little lab school, as she raises her three children.

Franki is a parenting expert in her own right with a Masters in Special Education and most of a Masters in Clinical Social Work (pandemic purchase!) at the time she wrote this book. However, you will hear no judgement in this author's advice as she lays out methods to help parents with all types of struggles from anxiety, ADHD and sensory difficulties, to raising siblings with competing needs, to learning when to let go and when to reach out to a professional.

Does your child struggle with age expected tasks and have difficulty socially, trouble focusing, managing school, listening to directions or with sibling relations? Is your family struggling because one of your children seems to consume all your parental energy? Are you overwhelmed when your child misbehaves (again)! This book was written to support all parents. Each chapter concludes with key points, in case you read in 5 minute increments between webinars and school pick up lines. Short, insightful, and funny! Because after all, parenting can be funny!

Amazon Customers say (summary of reviews), 4.8 stars, 71 reviews

Customers find the book valuable for parenting advice, with one noting its practical insights from a seasoned educator. Moreover, the book is easy to read, with one customer mentioning it reads like a friend is talking to you. Additionally, customers appreciate its humor, with one noting it makes them laugh out loud, and they value its personal and humble approach.

BOOK AWARDS

IAN Book of the Year

Literary Titan gold award

For more posts by and about this book and its author, Franki Bagdade click HERE.

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