Parenting an autistic child can be beautiful, joyful, and deeply loving — and it can also be physically and emotionally overwhelming. Especially when your child’s stimming, movement, or verbal repetition triggers your own sensory overload. For mothers coming into parenting a neurodivergent child when they themselves are neurodivergent, and have experienced trauma, it's a lot.

This episode is about what it feels like to be stimmed out as a single mother. Parenting spaces talk about mothers being touched out, Faustina takes it to a whole other level because your child's stims are a LOT more stimulating for the nervous system, than just touch. It's noise, it's movement, it's bolting, it's much more than just wanting to be against you or in your arms. As a matter of fact, a lot of the time our kids don't even want to be held :) they're just here for the noise levels, the running around and sensory-seeking in all its forms.

So we talk about how you can stay present without shutting down or snapping.

When there's no other parent around to take over while you take a break, what do you do?

No shame. No judgment. Just real strategies for protecting your nervous system while still showing up with love.

parenting autism, sensory overload, autistic parent, overstimulation, stimming, PDA autism, neurodivergent parenting, stims, gentle parenting autism, regulating nervous system, autistic motherhood, parenting through overwhelm, coping skills for parents, single mom, single mother, trauma-informed parenting, emotional regulation for parents, parenting burnout, parenting resilience, supporting autistic children, sensory needs, autistic sensory experience, mindful parenting neurodivergence