The ADHD MUMS Pod
Real talk from two ADHD mums in the thick of parenting, chaos, and clutter. Gen and Claire share honest highs and lows of neuro-divergent life. We are Mums, but you don't have to be to listen!
We share real, unfiltered stories about parenting, neurodivergence, and daily struggles like executive dysfunction, disorganisation, overstimulation, and Mum guilt. We also celebrate the wins—big or small—with honesty and laughter.
We're both AFAB and biological mums, but this space is for all parents, ADHDers, curious minds, and —even your pets. Everyone’s welcome.
We do swear though, so you probably need headphones if there's kids around!
The ADHD MUMS Pod
HIGHS AND LOWS OF THE WEEK: Snail Invasions, Diagnosis Joy, & Medical Maze Wins
We crack up trying to record, then settle into highs and lows: slugs in the house, file conversion chaos, a child’s autism diagnosis framed with empowering language, medical updates, a return to counseling studies, and the power of small, thoughtful acts. Joy shows up in unexpected places and changes the week.
• rental gaps, slugs and snails, landlord neglect
• file conversion struggles, accidental voice note nostalgia
• child’s autism diagnosis confirmed and celebrated
• empowering language choices and identity pride
• adult ADHD vs child diagnosis, support planning
• hospital appointments, ECG monitor, delayed surgery dates
• enrolling in a flexible Level 3 counseling course
• late-night cinema and a partner’s practical care
Further TW: This podcast references at times: alcohol abuse, depression, mood disorders, medical emergency, miscarriage, traffic accidents, grief and loss, teen pregnancy, anxiety, abuse, PDA, low self esteem, and anti-depressant medications, disordered eating, hoarding...
All music written and produced by Ash Doc Horror Lerczak.
Artwork by Gen
For more information about us, our podcast and our ADHD MUMS community, visit OUR WEBSITE.
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Let's get ADHD MUMS up the pod charts and raise awareness when we all need it most!
See you next Wednesday! xxx
ADHD Moms! It's the high the low, it's the high the low, it's the high load and low Highs and Lows of the Week. We're the ADHD Moms and Claire and I'm Jen. And we've had to come on over here and record right now because we got the giggles trying to record a serious episode. I think we'll do the highs and lows now instead.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, it feels nice though. It's a nice physical feeling in your chest of where you're like trying to suppress the actual the giggles. Now that we're allowed to laugh, I feel fine, I feel calm.
SPEAKER_01:Contrarians. Don't tell me to be happy.
SPEAKER_00:So we're here with the highs and lows of the week. As we do. I'm ready to go first.
SPEAKER_01:Don't hear that off the so me low.
SPEAKER_00:As per recently, it's pretty banal. It's a pretty mediocre low.
SPEAKER_03:I've still got it because it's it's not it's not like a sort of thing. Good job, me lower nothing serious. It's not unusual for me to laugh when this like it's inappropriate anyway, is it?
SPEAKER_00:Well you'll laugh, but how shit this lo is. Okay, let me just wrote two words in minuta. I keep a little reminder if anything's like, oh, that's me gotta be me low this week. Um I've just wrote snails in. No. So you know when you live in a shit house. Yeah. Shit landlords. Yeah. And you get slugs in your house.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, because the fucking gap in my back door. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Between the back door, there's fucking gaps between every bit of floor and wall and window ledge and blah blah blah and back door and you and the slugs get in.
SPEAKER_02:The slugs just inside your little kitchens, their house. I've been having snails in my house. That's how big the gap is. They can get through with their little shell house on the back.
SPEAKER_00:They're not even like little kind of teeny weeny little pond snails. No, no, no. Snails on my carpet going across my living room in the morning. I love snails to be honest. I don't know. No, but not snail trails, darling. No, darling, not in the living room, anyway. Um disgusted. Not not disgusted, just fucking bored of it. I can't wait to I can't wait for this slack middle man to be out of my life, this landlady.
SPEAKER_03:But babe, so you're not going to do nothing to get rid of them then? No! It's cruel, isn't it? I've got new friends. They say put salt on them and shit.
SPEAKER_00:I've put salt around the edges of the floor before, but then they'll just turn back. I wouldn't put salt on them or anything.
SPEAKER_03:No.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but if you think about it. No, no, they would touch it and go, ah, it's like getting a lucky shock off a lucky fence. You'd turn the other way. Give them some beer. I bet you want me to stop feeding them. Welcome them in with a crust of bread and a goblet of beer.
SPEAKER_03:Nobody likes or something, so you give them that. I don't know why. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Now we've got the giggles again, and it's so inappropriate because we were we were struggling with um converting a media file.
SPEAKER_00:And we were literally about an hour and a half. We'd had a nice dinner, we'd had a takeaway in bed.
SPEAKER_02:As you could see, it's like full of disgust.
SPEAKER_03:Which we're trying to convert an M4A into a file into a that's exact that it's excruciating all sounds.
SPEAKER_01:All manner of new software onto my laptop.
SPEAKER_03:And then I've had to download something onto my laptop.
SPEAKER_00:Onto your phone, but that was an accident because we were logged in under our Google account.
SPEAKER_02:We'll say double down on my phone.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, and then she listened to it, she accidentally heard some voice notes from the very distant past.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, it was my son when he was about three, and like he took a voice note. I just wanted to die. No, no, it was like no extra, but my heart was breaking because my son's voice is breaking now. Oh so even the voice he's talking in now will be gone soon. Oh Make sure you say voice notes of your kids as they go along, guys. Oh, totally. Because you'll never hear that voice again.
SPEAKER_00:Oh my god. That's such a good point. I've just deleted all my bloody I've lost all my voice notes from my kids now. Didn't think about voice notes from them. I deleted all my voice notes recently because I think of it as just me and my mates just having a gas.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Never mind. There'll be some somewhere. Bits and pieces, it's not them. Anyway, I must remember to actually so now we've got a file conversion system.
SPEAKER_03:So like you'll remember how to use it ever, ever again.
SPEAKER_00:But meanwhile, while we were trying to fix it, I said, Oh, I'll message Ash. That's one of my like ultimate besties, and he's a sound tech music, audio tech guy, he does all our amazing tunes, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_03:You may remember him from the episode where you uh dis what was it, dislocated your name to go and sort your ass and both why you must make it unfair to Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01:So I've texted him saying, Are you about? And then I've just put help me. Meanwhile, he texts back saying, Are you okay with loads of question marks and then rang me? Yeah. And meanwhile, I was probably just about to write help me convert an audio file.
SPEAKER_00:She was in serious trouble, she'd caused herself another injury and was stopped between the bed to make me think of like the life of a an ADHD person's best friend to be like the way he found me, like and he was proper ready to like swoop in and help me.
SPEAKER_01:But he was equally like just still chewing his dinner, and when I answered and went, Well, I've done it now. He was like, What have you done? You're alright. Will you send me that passport I asked you to send me a photo of four weeks ago?
SPEAKER_00:Anyway, I have my utility.
SPEAKER_01:But he just there are good guys. Excuse me. He's just messaged me. I thought you'd come across.
SPEAKER_03:But um let's just point out that there are good guys in the world.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, he's an absolute angel.
SPEAKER_03:Sometimes I wonder. No. Some no, sometimes I wonder about the male species.
SPEAKER_00:Oh well, the chance we've been having today. But me high, woo! Um, is not exactly in itself, but what came with it more than anything for my child, um my daughter got her her autism diagnosis confirmed. The MDT had happened. They did a Zoom video call with us. It was all like really child-friendly and you know, kind of just carefully worded and stuff, and um they spoke to her about it, and she was just like so happy when we got off the call.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I know.
SPEAKER_00:And her dad had she'd been with her dad the night before and he'd come come in to have the video call in mind and everything. Um and he it sounded like he'd had a really lovely preemptive chat with her in the car, which I was very pleased about, you know, his um attitude towards it, like what he'd said. I was like really like, oh, you know, when you like something is aligned with exactly how you would have liked to have ideally said it, and you're like, oh my god, great, perfect. Um and all that, you know, just very focused on like, well, no matter what they say, you're you, and we you know, we love you for you, we know we know who you are, we know your needs, and blah blah blah, and none of that will change with this phone call.
SPEAKER_01:No, it'll just bring us I couldn't help it.
SPEAKER_00:Um but yeah, the the most brilliant thing for me was she was like it was the affirmation that we understand. Yeah, there's definitely ups and downs after diagnosis, confirmation, right? Yeah, like certainly obviously a very different, extremely different experience for us having had it as adults, as well, you as a parent at the time.
SPEAKER_03:Um you get all the grief of the life, not not lived, but she's a child exactly, and um she's she's aware that she'll get extra support and stuff.
SPEAKER_00:I've explained that much. Um but so I made a not in my phone so I didn't forget this because it really like touched me, and I was like, I reckon this is gonna be my high point this week. This is like so good. So, you know, certainly when we started the pod, we were quite um careful to like make sure we were well well educated on like language around neurodiversity and stuff, and like we were hearing this or that terminology that then we were also hearing was like, oh, people in in the this or that parts of the neurodivergent community or whatever didn't appreciate that those terms, you know that sort of thing, you're just always trying to be abreast of what's like most appreciated.
SPEAKER_01:You said breast. I'm probably shielding mine. What's on?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, um so she was saying like blah blah blah, and she said, like, because I've got autism, and I've got it into my head that like got autism is like saying that it's like a sort of affliction or an illness or something, as opposed to I'm autistic, I'm an autistic person. Um so I sort of was like trying to lead with that and just said to her, You don't have to say you've got it, you know, it's something that's a part of you, and like she said, Well, what do you mean? I have got it, and I said, Yeah, but I mean, I suppose got sounds a little bit like got an illness or something. And she said, She was just smiling, she was like, But mummy, I've got fingers. And I was like, and smiles a bit. She went on, she was like, I've got a nose, I've got brown eyes, I've got a beauty mark on my face that you say you love.
SPEAKER_01:And I was like, Oh my god, and I was just like, There we go.
SPEAKER_00:She's just gonna be teaching me about it all, you know. It's just like it was just such an amazing like feeling of like it having been handed over that very day. She was like, What a fucking boss way to teach me, like well, to me, it's not saying I have autism is not an affliction because I have fingers, I have brown eye, you know, it was just so fucking cute. And to see her confidence to be able to like take it and run with it a straight way. Obviously, she's been prepping for it. We've been like discussing, but honestly, only a tiny bit of discussion about like what is autism, what's ASD, what is this spectrum, what you know, all that. But um it was just very gorgeous. It was a really humbling, yeah, as you say, out of the mouths of babes.
SPEAKER_01:Like big spaves and a babes, well.
SPEAKER_00:Um so come on, rescue me and tell me yours. Give it a rest, girl.
SPEAKER_03:And you'd want to rescue me. Never mind, all that.
SPEAKER_01:With respect, Ash, help me.
SPEAKER_03:I wish I had an Ash. Um anyway. Yeah, me loo, just continuing medical dramas. Not really dramatic, actually.
SPEAKER_01:Not dramatic enough.
SPEAKER_03:No. Um I'm progressing on towards my operation. And uh last week I had to have an echocardiogram, which one killed. Sounded horrendous. It's like when you have that US thing when you're having a baby and like they put the jelly on you and all that. It was all like, but it was all like under my left breast. Because that's where your heart lies, ladies. So she but like she's like digging it in like this to get to my heart, and it was uh goes on for 15 minutes. So anyway, I was like, that's done. The outcome of it though was I've got some erratic I had some uh what was it, irregular heartbeats? Some unstoppable beats. Yeah. Got some irregular heartbeats, so I then had to have this 24-hour ECG thing on. Um I also had a scan last week, which was a big cough up because the machine was broke and all this loads of crap. Um so it was like just too many hospital appointments last week for myself to be happy. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um You were practically there every day, weren't you?
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Um and still no dates from ya, so like that's really annoying. So it's just the ongoing that medical shit. Um, but me hi is j I was just browsing Facebook. And I saw this thing and I was like, um, are you are you on universal crazy? Oh yeah. I was like, yeah, I am. It was like, are you every scene? I was like, yeah, I am. It was like, do you want to do level three counseling course? I was like, yeah. Because the voice is on level one and two. Yeah. And uh how like when? It was like well stopped because I got breakfast.
SPEAKER_00:I thought so, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so 13 years ago.
SPEAKER_00:Talk about the world just being like, now's the time, darling.
SPEAKER_03:I know. And I've been listening to this one, going on about Aircourse.
SPEAKER_00:And knowing all exactly what I'm talking about all the time.
SPEAKER_03:I do. I've caused I'm like, yeah, I do already know all. So I um need to be um getting back at it, cause I was thinking I could do it. I dropped out because I hated my teacher, which is very uh which is very PDA of me, isn't it? But um I think like with me I might be able to cope with my PDA this day.
SPEAKER_00:I just think you just have a completely different attitude. Once you're a parent, you do anyway, don't you?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_00:But you think you can put up and shut up with a lot more? Yeah, I mean Unless it's like scumbaggery.
SPEAKER_03:I did have genuine reason for join house in that mm I had uh my gallstones went off and I had to have an operation and I got pancreatitis and then I got pregnant. So I was like, I cannot, I cannot carry on with this cause right now. But then I've always been like, I can't do it because I I can't afford to pay for the course and um you know, because man you see.
SPEAKER_00:Well and you couldn't get you couldn't have you just couldn't have justified you were in the the life, weren't you? You couldn't have justified pulling out of your full-time NHS job to be a student when you're a parent, like who's gonna justify that? Just pulling out of work to just become a student.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Oh yeah, no, so it's like things uh I had a son to pay for it. Exactly. All this has just happened now, and so it's just the right moment.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. So anyway, I sus like clicked at oh, you know, interest or whatever on Facebook, and then I forgot. This was like a couple of weeks ago, they phoned me yesterday, and they were like, Oh, are you inter and I don't normally answer the phone to like numbers that don't there. But because the hospital has been phoning me all the time, I did answer it. Normally it just goes straight to voicemail. I answered, I was like, Yeah, I mean I'm interested in all that. And I was like, But I'm gonna go in for this surgery, and blah and blah. They were like, It's all online, and we'll base around you, and if you have to have time off for your surgery, it'd be more okay and all that, yeah. Um so then the film we're up today to actually enroll on it. I had to do a test, maths and english.
SPEAKER_00:Which of course you waste.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I actually I enjoyed it. Yeah, of course. That's it, it was fun. I'm so sad. Actually, I I would have hated it when I was at school just because someone was telling me. It was compulsive. Anyway, done that, Mim Rose. Start next week. Woo! And um yeah, so me and this one are gonna set up a private practice in a couple years' time. She'll be the psychotherapist, I'll be the counsellor. Yeah! Maybe we'll maybe we'll specialise in neurodiverse clients.
SPEAKER_00:Oh my god, so so so thrilled for you, babe. Yeah I wouldn't tell them the little added bonus high detail. Something nice happens. Oh god, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Credit we're credited, Joe. Yes, sorry. We did discuss, I was going to mention this earlier on and I've forgotten. Well, I'll go into detail because why not? That's what I do. Come on. Um Right. Well, because I'm gonna be going into hospital um soon. Do you say probably around the month of December? I remembered I'd bought Jen and the other two best mates. What's this you're talking about? She's bought me some zip it! Last Christmas I bought them in vouchers for the Everyman Cinema thing. I know they have them all around the country where you can like sit in the nice couch and have a cocktail on that while you watch a movie. And we kept saying, We'll go and do that when you're well. And then I was like, guys, it's gonna expire because it's but by the time I'm well, because like it's nearly Christmas again, and we haven't done it. Let's do it. So last night we went and we saw Frankenstein and we all really enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_00:So that was a high and we both fancied, didn't it?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we fancied Frankie, Frankie, oh Frankie. I was like, thank you, Frankie. I was like, I'll be your companion, Frankie. No, he's lovely in that one, isn't he? I mean, it's a bit a bit like it's the right sort of age for you. He probably smells. Come on. Anyway. He's made a dead floor. Yeah, anyway, said I didn't expect you to see this.
SPEAKER_00:I just meant your bedroom. Shut up. Yeah, go on.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, do you have to give spoilers?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Um, so anyway. Oh, I've lost me, Jane. I thought we went out for the night and was out till after midnight. We were out till after midnight we went.
SPEAKER_01:Time to send a mess. It turns into a pumpkin. We fucking sat with tap water after the film because they'd shut the bar. Yeah. We were so desperate to see. Can we stay for one after the film? I mean, we'll come back from the bottom.
SPEAKER_03:Um, anyway, we've got um, it was like something past midnight and I was something that's like no big deal. I was like a dirty stop out with Frankie and I'm wedding. I had my bowl of rice crispies because that's all I eat recently. Um, and then my partner was there, and I was like, Who have you been up to? And he was like, Oh, not as much, not as much, and all that. And then I went to my bedroom, it ties it all.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, you didn't tell me you did it like that. You didn't he didn't say anything, he just let you walk in.
SPEAKER_03:He tidied my whole bedroom, which you know I've been going on for ages. If you if you are a listener of this podcast who has listened to it before, you'll know I'm always going on about it. It set up all my office area because he was like, Well, you know, you've got that beating tomorrow morning, you need your office set off. I mean, that's a good boy. That to me was sexy.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's fucking sexy to anyone woman over 24 who's listening.
SPEAKER_03:Anyone who's got a room tied to I was like, oh, that's just the cutest thing in the world.
SPEAKER_00:Paradise.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. And then I just had some more crispies in my bedroom.
SPEAKER_01:Still to the bedroom.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. He was like, don't take them crispies in because that's not worse than having a fucking crispy up your heart while you're talking up in a crispy.
SPEAKER_00:We're gonna try and go back to this episode now. Well, we're co we're gonna go and try and record an episode now. We've got the giggles out.
SPEAKER_03:Oh it's a suave one.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Okay. So raise a fist and say it with us.
