The holidays can be magical… and completely exhausting when your child has ADHD.

Late nights, travel, sugar, screens, unfamiliar beds, and heightened emotions can quickly undo even the most carefully built sleep routine. If your child’s sleep falls apart during the holidays, you are not failing. This is genuinely harder for ADHD brains.

In this episode, Dr. Olivia Kessel shares practical, realistic strategies to help you protect your child’s sleep during the festive season and gently reset routines when January arrives.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why holidays are especially disruptive to ADHD sleep
• How overstimulation, routine changes, and emotional intensity affect regulation
• What to pack in a holiday sleep toolkit
• How to protect wind-down time without becoming the “fun police”
• When and how to manage sugar and screen time
• What to do if sleep completely falls apart
• How to reset sleep routines calmly in the New Year

This episode is for parents who are juggling family expectations, disrupted routines, and a child who struggles to switch off. You will leave feeling reassured, supported, and better prepared.

👉 Download the free Holiday Sleep Survival Guide

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December promises twinkly lights and cosy moments, yet many parents feel like they’re sprinting through a minefield. I open up about the invisible load that spikes stress during the holidays—noise, judgment, lost routines, sensory overload—and explain why your nervous system interprets it all as danger. When the body tips into fight, flight, or freeze, calm isn’t a choice you’re failing to make; it’s a state you can learn to access with fast, reliable tools.

We unpack the zones of regulation for parents—blue, yellow, red, and green—and walk through a relatable holiday scenario to show how we slide from steady to overwhelmed in small steps. Then I share a three-step reset you can use anywhere: notice, name, navigate. You’ll learn a one-minute breath pattern to switch off threat mode and a 5-4-3-2-1 grounding sequence to anchor back in the present. From there, we get practical about hotspots: setting boundaries for family gatherings, using code words and pre-planned exits, lowering the bar to get out the door, and choosing “good enough” bedtime routines after big days.

The heart of this conversation is a reframe: you’re not a bad mum; you’re a tired human carrying a load most people can’t see. Perfection is brittle, but presence is resilient. Trade the Instagram script for small, humane choices that protect your energy and your child’s regulation—leave early, say no, order takeaway, let the outfit go, and pick connection over performance.

If you’re craving steady ground, join the Seven-Day Calm Parent Challenge. For £10 you’ll get daily guidance, audio support, a private community, and a live Q&A to help you map triggers, practise resets, set boundaries, and release guilt. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs it, and leave a review to help more parents find these tools. Let’s choose present over perfect together.

👉 Join the 7-Day Keeping Calm Challenge (£10)

💬 Connect with Us

🎄 Early Christmas Gift: Join my free webinar on Keeping Calm During the Holidays
📅 Tuesday 9 December at 12:00 pm (UK time)
👉 Click here to receive the Zoom details.

🌱 Join our SEND Parenting Private WhatsApp Community — a safe space to share, learn, and feel supported by parents who truly understand.

⚡ Ready to go deeper?
Become part of the ADHD Warrior Mum’s Recharge Station — your space for group coaching, expert guidance, real connection, and the calm you deserve.

If parenting your child feels like a constant battle—and every strategy you have been told to use only makes things worse—you are not alone. Many families live this struggle daily without realising there is a name for what they are seeing: Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA).

In this episode, we speak with Rachel Crutcher and Sarah Stewart from the PDA Society, two experts who have walked this path both personally and professionally. Together, we uncover why everyday demands trigger such intense anxiety, why rewards and consequences backfire, and how a calm-first, collaborative approach can finally bring relief.

You will hear the early signs many parents miss—demand avoidance even for things a child usually loves, the need for control, and the familiar pattern of fine at school, meltdown at home. Once you understand PDA through a can’t-not-won’t lens, everything begins to make sense.

Your guides walk you through the practical steps that transform family life:
• How to lower demands without lowering expectations
• How to spot the hidden “micro-demands” that drain your child before the day has even begun
• How humour, choices, and written prompts make requests feel safe
• Why treating a PDA child like a “mini adult” (explaining the why, asking permission, collaborating) reduces anxiety instantly

We also tackle one of the biggest pain points for PDA families: school. You will learn how masking works, which adjustments truly help, and what flexible, trauma-aware practice looks like in real life. If your school’s ethos is rigid, we help you recognise when it is not the right fit—and where to turn for support and SEND-law guidance.

For families with siblings, we share a simple principle that reduces resentment and restores harmony: use collaborative, low-demand strategies with everyone. It is fair. It is kind. And it works.

Finally, we show you where real, ongoing help exists—through the PDA Society’s free guidance service, moderated parent communities, self-paced learning hub, professional training, and bespoke school consultations.

If you are exhausted, overwhelmed, or unsure what to try next, this episode will give you both clarity and hope.
You can understand your child. You can reconnect. And things can get better.

If this conversation supports you, follow the show, share it with your community, and leave a review—your story may be the encouragement another parent needs.

PDA Society

💬 Connect with Us

🎄 Early Christmas Gift: Join my free webinar on Keeping Calm During the Holidays
📅 Tuesday 9 December at 12:00 pm (UK time)
👉 Click here to receive the Zoom details.

🌱 Join our SEND Parenting Private WhatsApp Community — a safe space to share, learn, and feel supported by parents who truly understand.

⚡ Ready to go deeper?
Become part of the ADHD Warrior Mum’s Recharge Station — your space for group coaching, expert guidance, real connection, and the calm you deserve.