The Empowered Parent with Dana Baltutis

Unschooling Series with Paige Carter (Parent, Advocate, Community Leader, Business Owner): Week 3 -Small Wins, Big Steps In Unschooling

• Dana Baltutis • Season 3 • Episode 3

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Ever watched a child light up at the zoo, then shut down at the hospital and wondered how to bridge those worlds with care, dignity, and actual access? We dive into a week that held both: a quiet bus at Monarto where curiosity bloomed, and a clinical setting where pushing past tolerance backfired. Along the way, we unpack the practical tools that make community life possible for neurodivergent kids, from hydrotherapy wins to the much-debated disability stroller that functions as a lifeline.

We share how unschooling shows up in real time: learning differences between apes and monkeys on the move, noticing the iPad as a regulator rather than a villain, and prepping for transitions when the water slides are closed but the pool is still calling. At home, we’re packing up to rent the house and planning a lap around Australia: tag-teaming weekends, leveraging ADHD hyperfocus, and keeping eyes on a future with more freedom and family time. Our daughter’s school fatigue gets a humane reset with later starts, backed by a supportive teacher and simple, clear communication.

The heart of the conversation is nervous system literacy. One parent often becomes the safe base, the other the action signal. Naming these roles reduces blame and power struggles, and it guides who should lead what-especially during transitions. We also pull back the curtain on NDIS knockbacks that label strollers as “restrictive practice,” how we used a Variety grant to fund a purpose-built disability stroller, and what to do when the first device can’t withstand meltdowns or strength. Think durable gear, sensory shielding, and realistic logistics that keep outings possible.

Medical trauma needs careful handling. We share scripts that protect capacity- sending videos ahead, setting no-engagement boundaries, and calling time when a clinician pushes a child past their limit. The result isn’t perfect compliance; it’s sustainable care and trust for the next visit. If you’re navigating similar terrain-unschooling, access, advocacy, and family alignment-you’ll find strategies you can use today. If the conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs the validation, and leave a review so more families can find these tools.

danabaltutis.com, mytherapyhouse.com.au, https://mytherapyhouse.com.au/your-childs-therapy-journey/ https://www.danabaltutis.com/services

SPEAKER_00:

Hello everyone and welcome to session three of our unschooling deschooling installation or of our episodes on the Empowered Parent Podcast. Welcome, Paige Carter, to session three. So you survived last week?

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you so much for having me back again. Yes, we survived. We're here for another day. Well, another week, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, another week, of course. Okay. So how was the week for you and Oakland? Like, how did it feel energy-wise? Last week you had a few um little uh celebrations when Oakland wanted to go to school and went for five minutes. What happened this week?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, this week has been like a bit up and down. We've had like again some really good moments and some really hard moments. It's definitely probably been a bit more I was gonna say been a bit more chill, but then I think no, it hasn't really. He's he's gone back to not playing his PlayStation as much, and we spoke about that last week. He's gone back to being on the iPad, kind of just resting. But we have had a couple of wins as well of really cool things. So he did go to Minado. And he went with his dad, didn't he? He did, he went, yeah, he did. He went to Minado with my husband last week, and he was there for about an hour and a half, and he had a really good time, and yeah, he was telling me about the animals, and he was really excited to take photos of elephants for me because they're my favorite animal, and he's seen that the he was he learnt things. He was telling me that did I know that monkeys weren't no that sorry that chimpanzees, I think is it the chimpanzees aren't monkeys, they're apes. Then he was telling me what the difference between a monkey and ape is, is that the monkeys don't have uh no, the apes don't have tails. That's all we know, like yeah, it was just really cool, like you know, the the stuff that he absorbs and likes to learn.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh he has to be sorry, Paige, he has to be in his just right space, right? He was relaxed, um he liked with a secure and safe person, dad.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely, uh that's and it was it was it was kind of in the middle of those rainy days. So they went and they were it was really quiet. I think they said there was one other person on the bus with them, and yeah, so it was really nice and quiet, and he could just be who he is and you know struggle when he when he without people watching him and have a really good time and ask the questions he wanted to ask and all the things, so yeah, that was a win. And then today he had his first hydro lesson, and I was really anxious about it, but he really loved it, he had a good time.

SPEAKER_00:

So tell the listeners that don't know what is a hydro lesson.

SPEAKER_01:

So it's hydrotherapy, so it's done with a physiotherapist, and it is, I guess, physio, but in the pool. In a swimming pool. Yep, it was very cool. He loved it.

SPEAKER_00:

And he went in, he put his bathers on and and everything.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, he did. I was really anxious, and I got my husband to come with me because I was like, oh my goodness, like I was just so scared of how it was going to go because we have had some real rocky times this week with transitions, but he he did it and he did really well and he actually really enjoyed himself, so that was really good.

SPEAKER_00:

Fabulous. That's fabulous. I mean, things have really shifted. Like, you know, you I think you use the iPad as a barometer, you know, if he's gone back to the iPad and he's no longer doing the PlayStation. But then let's have a look and see some of the big things, like an hour and a half at Monado. And this was the boy that at the beginning of term or during the school holidays didn't want to go anywhere, right? Yeah. And today he went to hydro, which is a new thing for him. And I know quite a few kids that find it really hard to even uh have that transition you know from the temperature because you've got to, you know, get out, you get in and it's a bit cold and get out and it's cold. But obviously, the water is a very big motivator for him.

SPEAKER_01:

It is. Oakland loves the water, and I but I was a little bit worried because he really loves water slides, he finds them super regulating and fun and just gets so much joy out of those, but during the week the water slides aren't open where we went. So I was so worried about that. I was like, oh, he's just gonna want to go on the water slides, and he's gonna get upset. And we did speak about it a lot though, coming up to today, and he was okay. You know, he he did get upset like before we went, and like kind of this week, he was adamant he wasn't going, and he was adamant really right up until about half an hour before we went that he wasn't going, and then he just decided that he was, and and he had a really good time, so it was yeah, it was good.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that's great, that's great. And Paige, my question is always to the parents. So when dad and Oakland went to Monado, what did you do? Oh, what did I do?

SPEAKER_01:

I I had to think then. Goodness. Uh I actually had a meeting with my friend and business coach in Glenelg. We were together for I think four hours. We had a nice lunch, we worked through a lot of my business stuff, which has been really hard for me because I've had Oak all the time. So she helped me with a lot of that and yeah, helped me get something really exciting together that I've been trying to do for a few months now. So yeah, it was really good. Fabulous, fabulous.

SPEAKER_00:

And just before we came on air, you were saying that it's been a pretty challenging week for you because you're hacking up the house. Do you want to talk more about that and how is that impacting you and your whole family?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, so I think we did touch on this last week. My family and I are travelling Australia next year, our house is up for rent now, and we in the stages of packing up. So it's been, I think it's just like there's just so much to do, and having Oakland around all the time, I can't get a lot done during the week. So there's a lot that we have to do on the weekends, and it's just it's exhausting on top of everything else. But what's getting me through, and just we're just persisting, and we're just you know, we've set ourselves a plan and we've timelined it all out, is that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Next year, we are going to have the best year of our lives, and that's it's gonna create so much freedom and family time and peace for us next year that it's like that light at the end of the tunnel. So we just push through because it's gonna be worth it.

SPEAKER_00:

And right, one step at a time, right? One day at a time, one step at a time. Absolutely, yeah. And when you say uh you are able to do more on the weekends, is that because you've got more support or what's the reason for that?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh yeah, so we just managed to get more packing and stuff done on the weekend because Sam's home, my husband's home. Uh, so we can tag team with Oakland.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, great.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and then you know, and there might be moments where he is just happy, you know, playing his iPad by himself or playing the PlayStation, and Sam just goes and helps him when he needs it, where we can actually smash some things out together as well and get them done quite quickly. When our ADHD brains together get fixated on something and have a mission, we we can do it. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00:

And I love the way that you guys are working as a team, right? I love that. And I've seen your some of your posts and your photos and on Instagram and on Facebook, and I just love the posts that you post about your family on Inclusive Oak. And what about your daughter? How's she going in all this?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, she's she's really good. She has. I I noticed last term she was a bit tired. She was not wanting to go to school, which was a bit unusual for her because the last couple of years, when she's had like this amazing teacher, she's had him for two years in a row now. She'd loved going to school. Even when we'd gone holiday, she'd now come back because she wanted to go back to school. But that yeah, last term she she struggled a bit, so we've had lots of conversations around that. And I think it's you know the combination of end-of-year exhaustion and also some anxiety about big changes that are coming for us. So we've been working through that with her, and something that we've done is taking the pressure off of me waking her up in the morning in time to get ready to go to school. So something we're doing is just letting her wake up naturally and then just getting ready in her own time and taking her to school when she's ready. And that is definitely helping. She it's much easier to get her to school, she's much more willing to go, and she's much less exhausted. So that's been working really well for us.

SPEAKER_00:

And how did you organize that with the school? Like, did you have to talk to them about it? Did was it hard to convince them?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, uh, so no, our school is really, really good. We're very lucky. Obviously, Oakland isn't there anymore. However, I honestly don't have a bad thing to say about them. Sorry, I'm just digressing there, but I don't have a bad thing to say about them with how they handled everything with Oakland, and same with Lacey, that they've always been really supportive of whatever we need. So I just approached her teacher and I just said, Hey, you know, this is what I'm thinking, because obviously we had some conversations about where she was at last year, and her petition her participation at school had not been the best, and she he'd noticed that she was struggling as well. So I just sent I literally just told him via dojo what I was thinking, and he goes, Yep, I'm in full support of that. No worries, thanks for letting me know. Like it was just a very easy, like, yeah, no worries. I've always been very open with the school about my kids, you know, always having phone calls and meetings and things and getting the therapist involved. And I think they're they're just quite used to me now. I think they just they just know that when I say this is what I'm doing, that that's what I'm doing. Um and they've just they just support it.

SPEAKER_00:

And and also, Paige, you're you're certain, you know, and that's what we talked about last week is that you've now become, you know, you know when you've made the decision, it's the right decision, and you just follow through with it. You don't um and uh or sit on the fence, right? And if it hasn't been the right decision, you know that you can problem solve it and go back, or you know, and I think it's another decision.

SPEAKER_01:

I think it's really important to say that God, I've made the wrong decision more times than I can count. You know, over the years, when I look back at it, God, I've made some mistakes and decisions that I thought were going to benefit my kids have been the worst thing ever. And it's but it and back then I'd really let myself be down about it and think I was a failure, and you know, I wasn't I you know, why did I trust my gut and all of those things? But as I've grown in this journey, I've just I don't know, like I I've just grown, you know, like I've just learnt to really listen to my gut. I guess back then when I thought I was listening to my gut, maybe I wasn't, and I was letting outside influence and not really following my heart, but now I'm very in tune to what my gut is my heart is actually telling me and just following that and not being worried about oh, what this person's gonna think of me or what are they gonna say? Like I just do it. And I don't I've lost the care factor of whatever anyone else thinks, which is great, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Like because I think now you really are, you know, like that oak tree that you have in your logo, um, you know, it's about the roots, you know, really as they go deeper and deeper. And and what about like Sam and yourself? Do you guys always support each other, or are there times and you're like, no, I think we need to do that, but Sam is has got a different idea. How? Because I've heard a lot of families where one parent thinks A and the other person thinks B, and it's really hard to come to a decision. Do you guys have that or are you pretty much on the same page? Oh no, we have that. We are just like any other normal couple.

SPEAKER_01:

We uh disagree, especially I kind of in like we we disagree still now, but I guess it was definitely a lot more in the beginning, in those first few years of our kids being diagnosed, it was harder because I would spend so much time with the therapists and learn from them, and you know, my husband would come from a different opinion, and because he hadn't kind of listened to the therapist and heard from them and or had the opportunity, right?

SPEAKER_00:

He didn't have the opportunity.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, because he's at work, yeah. Yeah, so yeah, it wasn't just because he just wasn't listening. Sorry, I probably worded that wrong.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, no, that's okay. That's okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But yeah, he uh so it it could be a bit tricky, but I think over the years, you know, things that I've wanted to implement, he's seen that they've worked, and he does just follow my lead a lot with the kid with certain things with the kids now, and kind of just lets me uh take the reins with that kind of stuff. But certainly we do still disagree on you know parenting things. My husband's definitely harder on them than I am, uh, and is a bit more of that implementer of I don't know, consequences isn't the right word, but you know, just discipline. Like I don't I don't know what the right words are to use, but just a bit a bit harder on them than I am, and I think expects more from them than I do. So my husband is autistic, ADHD, and also PDA, and I feel that yeah, sometimes that can make it hard for him to kind of step out onto the outside and see. And then you know, sometimes it's the other way around, and he's adamant on doing something, and I I can't understand it, so yeah, we still we still definitely struggle with that. I think I think every marriage or couple partnership, when you've got neurodivergent children, it's hard, right? Like it's really hard. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And today, you know, I read somewhere and I was mentoring one of my staff members around a mum and dad, like a mum and dad scenario where mum was saying, oh, the child is always silly with me and running from me, but with dad, they're not. And I was reading that mum is the regulation base, and it doesn't have to be gender specific, but one parent is often the regulation base, and another uh parent is the activation signal. So, you know, where and it's usually mum is usually the child's safe nervous system, where you know the child can feel like the tone, the face, the smell, the rhythm, they're all familiar and they trigger that regulation. And then that they lean into mum, and then they can be silly and then they can say no. And you know, mum's got to work a little bit harder because mum is the safe place. Whereas as soon as dad comes in, dad's often associated with novelty, activation, doing, especially if the dad's energy is more matter-of-fact or clear. And so the brain says, the child's brain often says, Mum, your safety regulation, I can play up a bit, dad, oops, your action and direction. And it's almost like an instinct, you know, like absolutely, yeah. And is that what you're finding as well?

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely, and yes, and then you know, and then that like literally what you've described there happens in my household. And then, you know, especially more so kind of previously, not so much now, because of all the learning we've done together. But my husband used to say things to me, it's because you're too soft on them, or things like that. However, however, now, you know, we understand exactly what you're saying now, that mum's the safe place, often like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So and often I think you know, it's really hard when you've got a safe place and the safe place gives you an instruction, you're it it gets very blurry and you don't go with that instruction. Whereas when the doer gives you an instruction, you don't even think, you just do the instruction, you know. And and even if mom has very strict and you know, boundary-specific instructions, sometimes it is hard for children to, especially if developmentally they're not ready to move on and be, you know, self-regulated, they still need that co-regulation. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, okay, for sure, definitely still needs co-regulate. 100%, 100%. And so, you know, it's almost like, you know, when dad or or the the the you know, activity action person enters, the child's already doing something, you know, like because the brain goes, it's it's almost like a trigger or an anchor that that person, okay, I I'm not leaning in to have that social and emotional cushion, but instead I'm bouncing off and I'm doing something. And then when I'm on my cushion, I'm not doing a thing. I'm just leaning in and I'm just vegging out with mum, you know. So yeah, I think it's it's so timely. I I really believe, Paige, that you know, we we are balls of energy and things happen in our lives at a different time. And I was just talking about this at work today, and you know, here you are telling me, oh yeah, this is this is what happens in our household too, which I find quite quite interesting.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, it I think it's quite normal, right? Yes, yes, yeah, absolutely. I think everywhere, like you know, in in my community, we we talk about this sort of stuff often, and it's just everyone experiences that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, and it's not someone doing the wrong thing, right? It's just no, it's just different feels, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, it's just it's just different parenting, right? And just yeah, the way the child feels. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I just want to go back a bit, and last week, I think at the end of our episode, we talked about prams and how to get prams. And I know a lot of parents need prams, not because their children can't walk, but they may not have the resilience to walk long distances, or they may get distracted by things and they just need a little bit of safety, security in the in out in the community. But I know there's been a lot of parents who have been who they've been rejected by the NDIS to have Prams because it's like a restrictive practice. Yes. Can you talk a little bit about that and your journey about, you know, I know Oakland has a Pram, is that right? He does.

SPEAKER_01:

He has a purpose-built, yeah, purpose-built disability stroller from Noveta.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

We are one of these families that got knocked back from the NDIS because it was a restrictive practice. Uh, this was quite a few years ago now, I want to say like three or four years ago, where we asked for the Prem. We got well, yeah, we got knocked back because it was a restrictive practice, but we also got knocked back because it they told us it was parental responsibility, uh, which I hate that term. God, when they say that to you, you just about want to rip their eyeballs out. So yeah, it the the problem we had is that we already had a quote for this Pram. And when they tell me it's parent responsibility parental responsibility, but the Pram is seven and a half thousand dollars. I have issues with that because no parent of a typical child, well, no average parent of a typical child is paying seven and a half thousand dollars for a PRA.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it's like a wheelchair, right?

SPEAKER_01:

I mean it literally is, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I I went for a review of the decision. However, the NDA still wouldn't fund it. So that was really difficult because I knew that we needed the PRAM as soon as possible. And if we didn't get one, it was going to not just limit Oakland's time in the community but completely stop it because Oakland really struggles to be safe in the community. He absconds, he has doesn't have stranger awareness, those type of things. He really struggles in some environments like with overwhelm and meltdowns and yeah, all of that sort of stuff. So I knew that I had to find a way to get it some other way. And what we did is we went to Variety. So the Variety Club, right, which is a charity. Yes, the Variety Foundation, yeah. Uh and you can apply for grants through them. You need quotes for what you're asking for, and you need to kind of yeah, fill out some forms and stuff, explain why you want it, how it will benefit you and your family, why you can't fund it, you know, all of those types of questions. So we did that, and it's a bit of a process, but after I think it was about a month of putting our application, we got approved, and they funded the PRAM.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh you've got to do you have to, I think uh you and I discussed at the end of our when we got off air. Do you have to go through NDIS first to show that you were rejected?

SPEAKER_01:

You know, your your uh well, I'm I'm actually not sure if you have to. We did, and this is a few years ago now for us, so uh memory's a bit sketchy on you know, everything we did, but I would say, yeah, probably going to the NDIS first is probably more preferable for the variety foundation to show them that you've tried everything. But yeah, so we we did that after a month, we got it approved. They paid for the Pram and we went through Novita to get his Pram. Uh we had to go with our OT and meet a note OT from Novita there as well to do like measurements, try them trials and measurements and all of those sorts of things to talk about what would work for him, what wouldn't. The OT from Novita showed us a few, and he was really adamant that one in particular was going to be best for Oakland. I had my reservations, but we took his advice on board and we went with that one, even though I kept advising him. I kept saying Oakland is really strong. Like I know he's little, but he's really strong and he rocks and he you know he hits things and he kicks and you know all of those. Are you sure this is going to be strong enough for Oakland? He's like, Yeah, I've been I've worked here for you know X amount of time, I've never had one of these come back, it'd be great. Like, okay, no worries. So we went with that one. They did a few things to make the hood stronger and to make the footplate stronger so that he couldn't break those. And within about six months, we took it back three times because he kept breaking it. And then there was a point where he broke it, it was just unusable. Uh, so we went back to Novita and we said, you know, like what are we going to do here? Because we're not going to be able to get funds from anywhere to fund a new one. And I did tell you how strong Oakland was, and thankfully Novita did take that on board, and they did replace the Pram with a different one, one of the other ones that they showed us, and it is much stronger, and we still have it today. Oh, fabulous! Yeah, so it's fantastic, and he's not anywhere near growing out of it, it still fits him really, really well. He has just recently, on our trip to Queensland, broken the foot plate during a meltdown, but my husband can fix that. So it's not it's still not without, you know, wear and tear and without breakages, but it's it's definitely a lot sturdier than the one that we were originally given. But something, and and I guess this was the main concern from the OT, and I do understand why he gave us the one that he originally gave us because the one that we've got now is extremely heavy. Yeah, um, I think it's about 20 kilos. Wow. So I can't lift it on my own. Not because I can't lift 20 kilos, but because of the the pure size of it and then the weight is just too much. I just can't do it. It's very uh, you know, and I have a big full drive, so trying to get it up into there, it's really difficult. So I do struggle to be able to use it to take Oakland out on my own, and that was one of his struggles. He goes, How much is this gonna help if you can't use it on your own? Uh and definitely that is a struggle that we have. However, it still enables us to go out as a family with my husband.

SPEAKER_00:

So a need on the market is lightweight, extremely strong strollers, right? Yes. Someone who can engineer that. And and I guess, like, you know, I call it Pram Stroller, you know, other people, you know, I know people sort of liken it to a wheelchair, but really it is a community access device, right? It's like a it's like a talker to some kids who need a voice output communication device to talk. This is really important for Oakland, not because he can't walk, but he really can't access the community safely without having that safe container to hold.

SPEAKER_01:

And we wouldn't be there's no way, and I mean no way, we could take Oakland into a shopping centre without his Pram. There's no way that as a family we could go to something like a market without his Pram or the Zoo, like the normal zoo, not that Monado's a bit different because you sit on the bus, but like we can't go to the normal zoo without his Pram. He he may get out if it's not very busy at the zoo, but it's his safe place to come back to.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and I've seen it a lot with children, you know, when they come into the clinic, they some children initially don't even leave their pram because they need that that safe, that safety around, you know, encompassing, enveloping their body.

SPEAKER_01:

And that's the thing, like it's got a big hood on it. So he puts his hood over, he puts his head, you know, headphones on, and he has his iPad. And it's it enables him to block out the rest of the world, you know. And another place that it's just so useful for, and I honestly don't think that we could go in there without it, is the Women's and Children's Hospital. Oakland does have epilepsy, so we do have to go there. However, he's got a lot of medical trauma through, you know, going there because he's had lots of MRIs and all of those under general anesthetic. He's had lots of general anesthetics for someone his age and medical procedures and things like that. So he's got lots of medical trauma, and just getting him in there is so hard. So without his PRAM, you just wouldn't get him in there.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, and like he's bringing his safety, right? Because that is the safety from home, the safety from outside, in the inside, it's uh it's something predictable, it's there all the time, it's his boundary.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and you know, he doesn't have to talk to the doctors, he doesn't have to even acknowledge them. And I'm very specific with them. I'm like, please just don't talk to him. Please just don't like don't even look at him. If he doesn't want to engage with you and he's in there, just leave him alone. Like I can tell you everything that you need to know. Because if you push, and we have had we have had some doctors push. I was there not so long ago, and she made him get out because she wanted to see him do a couple of things. I understand they need to do their observations, but I had videos and stuff to show her that were recently taken that she could have accepted, and she made him get out, she tried to push him to do things that he didn't want to do, and well, he punched her and then pulled her hair. So fight, flight, uh and I had to stand in between them, and she was still going, like, she just really didn't understand. She was just adamant to try and that she would get him to do what she wanted him to do. And in the end, I had to be like, enough, you need to stop. He's not going to do it. Enough, you're making it like he is too far gone now. Like, stop. Like, I have to be, you have to kind of be really quite forceful with them sometimes.

SPEAKER_00:

It's like just stop, and well, but it it evoked PTSD, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's awful, it's awful.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. And I guess the other thing is if someone's listening and Paige, they might say, Oh, but you're talking about the child in front of them, how does that sit with you and Oakland?

SPEAKER_01:

And this is something that I do talk to his therapists about as well. Like I I get it, I do get it. And I try really hard to be very diplomatic in the way that I talk about him in front of him. Um but Oakland would prefer that. Like in our situation, Oakland doesn't want to talk to them. If he wants to talk to them, he will. Like he absolutely will. But when we go to medical appointments, it it's a requirement for him to be in the room. So we have to talk about him in front of them. And he chooses not to engage with them. The choice is there for him to engage. You know, we say, say hello, mate. Or, you know, like they might attempt to ask him a question, but he doesn't want to.

SPEAKER_00:

And I guess like in that situation, you could always say, Okay, Oak, I'm just going to talk to the doctor now about what we've been doing. Yeah, and we do that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, that's exactly what we do. Yeah. And I always, so when we go to those types of appointments, I do try to always take somebody with me so that if there are things that I don't really want to talk about in front of him, then they can take him out once the doctor sighted him and just seen that it's not appropriate for him to be in the room. Or something else I do in those situations, if I know that I'm going to be on my own, is send them an email beforehand with the things that I'm not comfortable talking about in front of him so that they're aware of that. Or if they haven't seen it, I'll say, Oh, I've sent that to you in an email. Can you just read it now? Yes. And then when they read it, they go, Oh, yep, okay, no worries.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Or I've said to some families, just take a letter and say, I've sent you an email, but here it is. We can't talk about it now, but you can always write me an email back.

unknown:

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. Oh, fantastic, Paige. I love talking to you because you've always got these gems of information. I'm sure the parents listening would love to, you know, find out more about and hear about because your stories are very relatable, I'm sure, to many families. So just um finishing off today, Paige. So, what was your biggest highlight of the week?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh personally or like as a family? Oh, whatever you like. Okay. Uh, I might pick one from each. Uh, I think like like I mentioned before, working with my business coach last week was really helpful for me on a business sense. Um, because I've been working on something in the background for a little while now, and it's launching this Saturday. Uh, we'll get it next week. That was yes, that was really exciting to kind of get that ball rolling because I felt very stuck with having Oakland Home all the time. It's been really hard to get work done. So that was really exciting and like felt like a really big win for me to have like a business win. Uh, and like personally, I I feel like seeing Oakland Hydro today and actually really enjoying that was really beautiful.

SPEAKER_00:

That's great. Well, I am sending you many positive vibes for the upcoming week. And as we go into it's week four, isn't it, that we're going into. Yep. Wow. How quickly is the time flying?

SPEAKER_01:

I know, I know it just flies by. Although I wouldn't mind it being the end of December already, because that's when we take off on our yeah, I thought today was tomorrow, if you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_00:

Anyway, so thank you so much, Paige, for being on our on our show because I feel like it is our show. And I really look forward to catching up next week and delving deeper and talking more with you.

SPEAKER_01:

Awesome, amazing. Thank you so much for having me, and I can't wait to be back next week.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, bye, Paige. Bye. Bye, thank you.

Contributor

Dana Baltutis

Host