A caregiver in our private Facebook Group asked: Am I the only one seriously considering cancelling Christmas?

We know this time of year can be challenging. So, if you feel like cancelling Christmas, or want to reduce meltdowns or overload, check out these top 8 ideas or hints for the holidays suggested by other caregivers:

1. Change (or adjust) your expectations.
2. Create new traditions that suit your family.
3. Keep routines. No late nights. No junk food. No increase in screen time.
4. Vary gift-giving, opening and displaying throughout the month.
5. Fewer decorations, fewer activities, and more downtime.
6. Limit access to all the marketing and advertising.
7. Stop celebrating Christmas completely or switch traditions, to simpler ones such as Solstice.
8. Pull your kids close and give them lots of cuddles and hugs.

We know there are times when you will want to decorate, engage in activities or visit family or friends. Some additional ideas that may help:

1. Ask your child what they want or...

What happens when you have the FASD information, training and support you need? Do you take a step back and let others find their own way or do you step up and help? Today’s guest, Jennifer Wisdahl, ranks in the circle of some pretty kick-a$$ advocates who are helping pave the way for families and individuals to get the support and services they need for success. 

Many of you may know Jenn from her role as the Policy and Training Center Coordinator for FASD United (formerly NOFAS) where she works with the Team supporting the pending FASD Respect Act. What you may not know is she and her husband, are proud parents of three teens with FASD, is a habitual volunteer (she sits on the board of NOFAS Washington State and on the executive board of the FASD United Affiliate Network), is formerly from Canada and still cheers for the Vancouver Canucks, while watching the Seattle Kraken.   

So often as advocates we talk into...

As a research scientist in the health care field, Ngaire Meadows thought she knew everything, but now understands how little she knew.

With four children and three on the Spectrum, it felt like WW3 in her home with rages, outbursts, and mental health concerns.  

Rages and outbursts, these just happen, and there’s no controlling it and there is no reasoning with it and there’s no deflecting. It’s like a storm cloud coming in, rolling in, you can’t stop it and you can’t make it roll out any faster, you just have to hunker down and weather it. 

In this episode, Ngaire and I talk about: 

• Trying to sort out what was brain and what was trauma and having no one around her understand what she was dealing with. 
• Feeling so worried, anxious and scared because nothing was working and the toll it was taking on her.
• The four changes that she made that resulted in a year...

Previous guests have included moms and dads, but this is the first time we’ve had a couple appear together to talk about their journey as FASD Caregivers. I couldn’t think of a better couple than Chandra and Jordan as the first. 

Chandra and Jordan are parents to 6 children – two with an FASD diagnosis and one suspected. Like Angelene Bruce, our conversation was not intended to be a podcast. It was for a case study for our upcoming CKS workshop. Like Angelene, their story is filled with great lessons that will benefit many.

Before taking the CKS program, Chandra and Jordan admitted they were living at a level of desperation and constant stress. They questioned their parenting, had others question their parenting, and struggled to understand why their children were acting the way they did despite what they felt was a supportive home environment.

I feel as a mom you get this intuition. There were things with our boys that I was recognizing, not...

Her handle on Twitter is FASD Warrior Mum. I interviewed Angelene Bruce for her feedback on her experience taking my Caregiver Kickstart Coaching program.  As she told her story, as a birth mum, it became clear her insight and experiences needed to be shared with a larger audience. She is a warrior who is working to throw stigma against birth mums and FASD out the window. 

I felt immense guilt. I cut down … and did as much as I could do – so diet, sleep, exercise, prenatal vitamins. I made sure my prenatal care was as good as it could be. I want birth mums to know there are mitigating things we can do. My passion is for women that are dependent. But it can happen even at low levels of drinking. 

Angelene is honest and forthright about her past. We talk about her dependency on alcohol and her pregnancy but also her path to recovery and acceptance. Stops on that journey include:  

• How her relationship with her son has evolved, what...

FASD is something...