ADHD Families Podcast

It's Sunday afternoon. Your kids can't walk past each other without it turning into something. Every interaction is a battle. And somewhere in the middle of it, you're thinking — when they grow up, are they ever going to be friends?

If that's your house, stay with us.

Sharon is joined by Jacquie Ward — Registered Psychologist and mum of three, including a child with ADHD — to talk about one of the most common and most misunderstood challenges in ADHD family life. Why sibling conflict is more intense in your home, and what to actually do about it.

👀 In This Episode:

Why sibling conflict is more intense in ADHD families — and why you are not imagining it

The six ADHD factors that create the perfect storm for sibling conflict

Executive function age vs chronological age — and why it changes your expectations

The family nervous system: why the whole house feels it when one child dysregulates

Sharon's Blue Mountains story — and the moment that changed everything

Why prevention beats reaction every time

The Three Cs Framework: Cool Down, Communicate, Collaborate

Why jumping in as referee is making things worse

The one action to take this week that will change your next sibling fight

Quote to Carry With You

"You are not stuffing this up. Your family is not beyond support. This is a very predictable friction point in ADHD families — and it is not beyond help."

— Sharon Collon

⏱️ Episode Timestamps

00:00 – The Sunday afternoon scene — sibling conflict in ADHD homes

01:13 – Introducing Jacquie Ward

02:31 – The six ADHD factors that create the perfect storm

05:01 – Executive function age vs chronological age

06:43 – The family nervous system and emotional contagion

08:14 – Why conflict in public hits differently

11:06 – Sharon's Blue Mountains story

15:44 – The Three Cs Framework: Cool Down, Communicate, Collaborate

16:30 – Why prevention beats reaction

19:15 – Cool Down — the most important first step

21:06 – Communicate — giving kids the language

24:01 – Collaborate — building skills for long-term change

26:28 – The one action to take this week

28:45 – Workshop details — May 11–13



🥊 Want to Go Deeper?

Stop the Fighting. Start Feeling Like a Family Again.

Sharon and Jacquie are running a 3-part live workshop series — the full playbook with scripts, in-the-moment strategies, and prevention tools specifically for ADHD families.

Live sessions: May 11, 12 and 13 at 7:30–8:30pm AEST

Replay available for 6 months

Payment plans via Afterpay and Klarna

JOIN US HERE

🔔 Next Steps & Resources

Subscribe to the ADHD Families Podcast

Join the waitlist for the ADHD Family Quest

Learn more at thefunctionalfamily.com

💛 Work With Sharon

Sharon Collon is a PCC credentialed ADHD family coach and founder of The Functional Family. She works with parents of children with ADHD who are exhausted by the daily battles — the mornings, the meltdowns, the school emails, the emotional dysregulation — and helps them build a family life that actually works.

Sharon's approach is practical, ADHD-informed, and built around real family systems — not generic parenting advice that wasn't designed for your child's brain.

With Sharon's support, families:

Understand what's really driving their child's behaviour — and respond strategically instead of reactively

Build the executive function skills their child needs, in a way that actually sticks

Replace daily conflict and overwhelm with calm, connection, and confidence

Create routines and systems that hold — even on the hard days

Move from survival mode to a family life that feels genuinely functional and joyful

Whether you're brand new to the ADHD diagnosis or years in and still feeling stuck — there is a way through.

You don't have to keep pushing through alone.

👉 Learn more at thefunctionalfamily.com

Every week in my support group, parents share the same quiet ache — they wish they had people in their lives who actually got them. They feel lonely. And they're often so busy supporting their child's social struggles that their own go unspoken.

This episode is for you. The parent. The adult.

I am joined by Caroline Maguire (M.Ed, ACCG, PCC)— ADHD coach, social emotional learning expert, and author of Friendship Skills for Neurodivergent Adults — for one of the most honest and relieving conversations the ADHD Families Podcast has had.

✨ About the Guest:

Caroline Maguire (M.Ed, ACCG, PCC) is an ADHD coach, social emotional learning expert, author, and speaker who has spent over a decade researching how neurodivergent adults experience friendship and belonging. Her book Friendship Skills for Neurodivergent Adults is the first written by a neurodivergent person, for a neurodivergent audience — practical, research-backed, and deeply human. She is also the host of the new podcast Your ADHD Social Playbook and has a TEDx Talk available on YouTube.

👀 In This Episode, Sharon Covers:

Why adult friendship is genuinely harder — and why that is not your fault

The worldwide loneliness epidemic and why ADHD adults feel it more acutely

Why proximity is the single biggest factor in making friends — and how ADHD gets in the way

The radical reframe: friendship is a learnable skill, not a personality trait

The hidden cost of masking — and what it is doing to your energy and mental health

The Flavours of Friendship — a framework for understanding different levels of connection

Why ADHD adults mistake acquaintances for close friends — and the hurt that follows

Info dumping, oversharing, going quiet: separating shame from skill building

How to move someone from acquaintance to actual friend

The repair: how to come back after you've gone quiet or disappeared

⏱️ Episode Timestamps

00:00 – Why ADHD parents feel lonely — and why we don't talk about it

02:17 – Friendship is a learnable skill: the reframe that changes everything

04:43 – How parenting a child with ADHD affects your own friendships

07:06 – Proximity — the single biggest factor in making friends

09:15 – The myth that everyone else has it figured out

11:38 – Confidence and friendship: the missing piece

14:02 – Finding your people — why environment matters more than effort

16:20 – The hidden cost of masking in friendships

18:36 – Why socialising drains you even when it goes well

20:55 – Managing your social energy and the power of the pause

23:20 – The Flavours of Friendship framework

30:21 – Rejection sensitivity and what it does to friendships

35:09 – Pinging: a practical strategy for finding shared connection

37:33 – Info dumping, oversharing, going quiet — shame vs skill building

39:55 – How to repair a friendship after you've gone quiet

42:21 – It's never too late — the path forward

📕 Caroline's NEW Book — Out Now!

Friendship Skills for Neurodivergent Adults iis the first book of its kind — written by a neurodivergent person, for a neurodivergent audience. If this episode resonated, this book is your next step.

Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Hachette, Audible, and wherever you love to buy books. Also available in audiobook.

Website: https://carolinemaguireauthor.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorCarolineM

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorcarolinecm/

NEW Podcast: Your ADHD Social Playbook

NEW TEDx Talk — Becoming a Social Spy: Observational Learning

👦🏼 Also Worth Reading — From Xavier

This episode talks about the adult experience of friendship and ADHD. But what about our kids?

My son Xavier — who has ADHD — wrote a blog that has stopped parents in their tracks since the day it was published. It is called A Note from a Kid with ADHD: How to Be My Friend.

In Xavier's own words, he shares what he needs from friends — the patience, the inclusion, the kindness, and the grace. It is the resource I wished she could hand to other families when Xavier was young.

Share it with another parent, a teacher, or a child who could use the reminder.

Read it here → https://www.thefunctionalfamily.com/blog/anotefromanadhdkidhowtobemyfriend


🥊 Are Your Kids Constantly Fighting? (Enjoy Discounted Rate HERE)

A 3-part live workshop series for parents of children with ADHD — co-facilitated by me (ADHD Coach) and Jacquie Ward (Psychologist).

If sibling conflict in your home feels more intense and harder to recover from than it should — you are not imagining it. ADHD changes the equation. This series gives you the why and the what now.

In just 3 nights, you'll learn how to:

Understand why your kids are constantly clashing — and what ADHD has to do with it

Step in without escalating or taking sides

Calm conflict in the moment, even when emotions are running high

Teach the skills your kids are missing so the same fights stop repeating

The Details:

Live sessions: May 11, 12 and 13 at 7:30–8:30pm AEST

Replay available for 6 months

Payment plans via Afterpay and Klarna

Early bird: $197 AUD (save $100) — use code EARLY at checkout

JOIN US HERE → https://www.thefunctionalfamily.com/offers/LCALkojv/checkout?coupon_code=EARLY

🔔 Next Steps & Resources

Subscribe to the ADHD Families Podcast

Carolin Mcguirre — Friendship Skills for Neurodivergent Adults (available in audiobook, including in Australia)

Join the waitlist for the ADHD Family Quest

💻 Learn more at thefunctionalfamily.com

💛 Work With Sharon

Sharon Collon is a PCC credentialed ADHD family coach and founder of The Functional Family. She works with parents of children with ADHD who are exhausted by the daily battles — the mornings, the meltdowns, the school emails, the emotional dysregulation — and helps them build a family life that actually works.

Sharon's approach is practical, ADHD-informed, and built around real family systems — not generic parenting advice that wasn't designed for your child's brain.

With Sharon's support, families:

Understand what's really driving their child's behaviour — and respond strategically instead of reactively

Build the executive function skills their child needs, in a way that actually sticks

Replace daily conflict and overwhelm with calm, connection, and confidence

Create routines and systems that hold — even on the hard days

Move from survival mode to a family life that feels genuinely functional and joyful

Whether you're brand new to the ADHD diagnosis or years in and still feeling stuck — there is a way through.

You don't have to keep pushing through alone.

👉 Learn more at thefunctionalfamily.com

Are you stuck in the impossible loop of should I or shouldn't I — and feeling judged no matter which way you lean?

If you're a parent of a child with ADHD, the medication question is one of the most emotionally loaded decisions you'll face. And it doesn't get easier when everyone around you seems to have a very strong opinion — whether they know anything about ADHD or not.

In this episode of the ADHD Families Podcast, Sharon Collon, ADHD family coach and founder of The Functional Family, shares her own family's messy, exhausting, emotionally charged journey through this exact decision. Sharon unpacks what ADHD medication actually does in the brain, what the research really says (including what often gets left out), the truth about side effects, and five practical questions to ask before you decide. This episode won't tell you what to do — it will give you the clarity to figure out what's right for your child.

Freebie:

🎁 Download your free guide: 5 Ways to Navigate Big Emotions Without Power Struggles

👀 In This Episode, Sharon Covers:

✅ Why the medication decision feels so chaotic — and why that's completely normal
✅ The fears every ADHD parent holds: "What if I'm numbing my child? What if I'm taking the easy way out?"
✅ Sharon's own family story — the diets, the therapies, the pressure, and the turning point
✅ What ADHD medication actually does in the brain (hint: it's not a sedative)
✅ The MTA Study — the most comprehensive ADHD treatment research ever done, and what gets left out of the headline
✅ Why medication alone isn't enough — and what the research actually shows works best
✅ What a 2025 longitudinal MRI study found about timing and brain development
✅ Long-term outcomes: what the research says about medication, substance use, and quality of life
✅ Side effects — the honest, evidence-based answer every parent deserves
✅ Five questions to ask before deciding whether medication is right for your child
✅ Why the medication decision isn't a knowledge problem — it's a systems problem
✅ The most important reframe: choosing medication isn't taking the easy road

⚠️ If you've been going back and forth on this decision while the pressure from school, family, and your own head keeps building — this episode will help you think more clearly.

⏱️ Episode Timestamps

00:00 – The fear and chaos that comes with the medication question
01:00 – Sharon's disclaimer: not medical advice, but real family experience
01:37 – Sharon's family story: diagnosis, pressure, and trying everything first
03:08 – The exhaustion of pursuing every alternative
04:12 – Getting ADHD advice from the barista (and other unhelpful moments)
06:21 – The turning point: what Sharon's husband disclosed that changed everything
07:48 – The second realisation: medication alone isn't enough
08:24 – What ADHD medication actually does in the brain
09:06 – What the research says: the MTA Study and what gets left out
11:06 – Effectiveness rates, the 2025 MRI findings, and long-term outcomes
12:06 – Side effects — the real, evidence-based answer
14:54 – Five questions to ask before deciding on medication
20:39 – Closing: you are not a bad parent either way

🎁 5 Ways to Navigate Big Emotions Without Power Struggles — FREE DOWNLOAD

You're already doing the hard work of understanding your child's ADHD.

But in the heat of the moment — when emotions explode and everything escalates — it can feel impossible to know what to actually do.

This free guide gives you five simple, ADHD-informed strategies to help you respond to big emotions with calm and confidence, without it turning into a power struggle every single time.

Because when you know what to do in the moment, everything feels a little more manageable.

👉 Download your free guide HERE.

🗺️ The ADHD Family Quest — Join the Waitlist

If you're trying to make clear decisions — like the medication question — while your family life still feels like organised chaos, that's not a knowledge problem.

That's a systems problem.

The ADHD Family Quest is a structured, practical pathway for families navigating ADHD. It gives you the roadmap, the routines, and the clarity to move from reactive to responsive — not with a list of tips, but with real systems built around how your family actually works.

When your home has a foundation, every decision — including this one — becomes clearer.

📋 JOIN THE WAITLIST HERE

🔔 Next Steps & Resources

Subscribe to the ADHD Families Podcast

Share this episode with a parent who is navigating the medication decision right now

Download the free guide: 5 Ways to Navigate Big Emotions Without Power Struggles

Join the waitlist for the ADHD Family Quest

💻 Learn more at thefunctionalfamily.com

💛 Work With Sharon

Sharon Collon is a PCC credentialed ADHD family coach and founder of The Functional Family. She works with parents of children with ADHD who are exhausted by the daily battles — the mornings, the meltdowns, the school emails, the emotional dysregulation — and helps them build a family life that actually works.

Sharon's approach is practical, ADHD-informed, and built around real family systems — not generic parenting advice that wasn't designed for your child's brain.

With Sharon's support, families:

Understand what's really driving their child's behaviour — and respond strategically instead of reactively

Build the executive function skills their child needs, in a way that actually sticks

Replace daily conflict and overwhelm with calm, connection, and confidence

Create routines and systems that hold — even on the hard days

Move from survival mode to a family life that feels genuinely functional and joyful

Whether you're brand new to the ADHD diagnosis or years in and still feeling stuck — there is a way through.

You don't have to keep pushing through alone.

👉 Learn more at thefunctionalfamily.com

Does your child go from 0 to 100 in seconds and you're left wondering what just happened?

If you're parenting a child with ADHD, you already know that big emotions don't just happen, they explode. And no matter how calm you try to stay, it pulls you in every single time.

In this episode of the ADHD Families Podcast, Sharon Collon, ADHD family coach and founder of The Functional Family, unpacks why emotional meltdowns in children with ADHD aren't behaviour problems — they're nervous system responses. Sharon explains why emotional regulation is an executive function skill that develops later in ADHD brains, what's really sitting underneath those explosive reactions, and why discipline and reasoning make dysregulation worse. If you've ever felt like you're walking on eggshells around your child's emotions, Sharon shares a simple 3-step strategy — Name, Validate, Regulate — that you can use in the moment, even when you're exhausted.

🎁 Download your free guide:
5 Ways to Navigate Big Emotions Without Power Struggles

👀 In This Episode, Sharon Covers:

✅ Why big emotions in ADHD children build beneath the surface — often all day
✅ Why one small question can trigger a massive explosion
✅ The truth: "Big emotions are small worries that didn't have the words to come out earlier"
✅ Why children with ADHD feel everything more intensely — joy, rejection, shame
✅ Why emotional regulation is an executive function skill — not a behaviour choice
✅ Why discipline, logic and reasoning don't work during ADHD meltdowns
✅ The "closed gate" brain — why your child's thinking brain goes offline when dysregulated
✅ The 3-step strategy: Name, Validate, Regulate
✅ Why validation is the most skipped step — and the most powerful
✅ How connection calms an ADHD child's nervous system faster than correction
✅ Practical, in-the-moment regulation tools that work even when you're depleted
✅ Why go-to scripts are a game changer for parents of kids with ADHD

⚠️ If your child can go from completely fine to explosive in seconds — and leave you wondering what just happened — this episode will completely reframe those moments.

⏱️ Episode Timestamps

00:00 – When ADHD meltdowns seem to come out of nowhere
02:24 – Why emotional regulation is an executive function skill
04:41 – Introducing the strategy: Name, Validate, Regulate
05:00 – Step 1: Name — helping your child put words to the feeling
07:00 – Step 2: Validate — the step most parents skip
08:00 – Step 3: Regulate — helping the nervous system come back online
09:23 – Mindset shift: having a hard time vs giving a hard time
10:00 – Conclusion + free guide: 5 Ways to Navigate Big Emotions Without Power Struggles

🎁 5 Ways to Navigate Big Emotions Without Power Struggles - FREE DOWNLOAD

A simple guide for parents of children with ADHD.

Big emotions are part of life with ADHD.

But when those emotions turn into meltdowns, it can feel overwhelming for the whole family.

Many parents tell me the same thing:

"I want to help my child… but I don't know what to do in the moment."

This guide will give you five simple strategies you can use to support your child through big emotions — without turning the moment into a power struggle.

👉 Download your free guide HERE.

🧹 Also This April —Something A Little Different

Your home is supposed to be your soft place to land. But for a lot of ADHD families — it's just another source of overwhelm.

If that's you, I have something coming that I think you're going to love.

Declutter Along With Me — 5 days. 45 minutes a day.

Side by side, together. No pressure. No perfect plan. Just focused, supported action that finally sticks.

📅 6–10 April 2026
👉 [GRAB YOUR SPOT HERE]

🔔 Next Steps & Resources

🔔 Subscribe to the ADHD Families Podcast

Share this episode with a parent who needs to hear it

Download the free guide: 5 Ways to Navigate Big Emotions Without Power Struggles

Join us on 6-10 April 2026 for 5-Day ADHD Friendly - Declutter Along With Me

💻 Learn more at thefunctionalfamily.com

💛 Work With Sharon

Sharon Collon supports ADHD families to move from reactive, overwhelming days to calm, connected and functional family life — using ADHD-friendly strategies that actually work for sensitive nervous systems.

Through her coaching and resources, families:

Support emotional regulation without power struggles

Build executive function skills step by step

Reduce daily conflict and overwhelm

Create systems that support the whole family

Strengthen connection — even in the hardest moments

Parenting ADHD does get easier.

But not by pushing through.

It gets easier when you understand what's really happening — and respond strategically.

You are too important to stay in survival mode.

Why does parenting a child with ADHD feel relentlessly overwhelming — even when you’re doing everything “right”?

ADHD Families Podcast, Sharon Collon, ADHD family coach and founder of The Functional Family, unpacks why ADHD parenting overwhelm isn’t a time problem, it’s an energy and nervous system problem.

Sharon explains why traditional parenting advice fails ADHD families, how the invisible mental load builds quietly in the background, and why your body may still be in hypervigilance years after the baby stage. If you’re stuck in survival mode, Sharon shares three practical tools to reduce overwhelm immediately — without adding more to your plate.

🎁 Join The ADHD Family Quest and create your family’s tailored plan:
https://www.thefunctionalfamily.com/quest

👀 In This Episode, Sharon Covers:

✅ Why ADHD nervous systems create chronic overwhelm
✅ The hidden hypervigilance mums carry (and why it’s exhausting)
✅ Why traditional parenting advice doesn’t work for ADHD
✅ The invisible load of school notes, meltdowns and mental juggling
✅ Why overwhelm is an energy problem — not a time problem
✅ The Rainbow Wall tool to rebalance negativity bias
✅ Why rest is critical (and not something you “earn”)
✅ How tracking sleep and your cycle builds strategic self-compassion

⚠️ If you’ve ever stood in the kitchen thinking “I can’t keep doing this”, this episode is for you.

⏱️ Episode Timestamps

00:00 – Remembering “busy” before kids
02:20 – Why ADHD parenting feels heavier
04:30 – Hypervigilance starts in the baby years
07:00 – The nervous system toll of constant dysregulation
08:45 – Why traditional parenting advice fails ADHD families
09:20 – The invisible load mums carry
12:30 – The “slab of the house” foundation: sleep, cycle, energy
13:50 – It’s not a time problem — it’s an energy problem
18:30 – Tool #1: Protecting your energy
19:45 – Tool #2: The Rainbow Wall
23:15 – Tool #3: Rest is not a reward
25:30 – Tracking sleep, cycle and capacity
27:45 – Recap: 3 practical tools
29:00 – Why ADHD support must be strategic
30:00 – ADHD Family Quest invitation

🎁 Join The ADHD Family Quest Coaching Experience

If you’re standing in the kitchen thinking, “I can’t keep doing this”… this is for you.

If your body is on high alert.
If the school calls, the meltdowns and the mental load never seem to stop.
If you’re exhausted from carrying the invisible backpack.

You don’t need to try harder.
You need more capacity.



🚀 The ADHD Family Quest – Now Open

The ADHD Family Quest is a 12-month, coaching-led experience designed to help families move from overwhelm to calmer, more functional daily life.

And you don’t get there alone.
Your whole family moves forward together — because it was never meant to sit on mum’s shoulders.

This isn’t therapy.
It isn’t a course.
And it’s definitely not a quick fix.

It’s structured, supported, ADHD-specific coaching that creates real, lasting change.

You don’t have to keep carrying this by yourself.
You just have to say yes to support.

📅 Starts 11 March
🔗 https://www.thefunctionalfamily.com/quest

🔔 Next Steps & Resources

🔔 Subscribe to the ADHD Families Podcast
📩 Share this episode with a parent who needs to hear it
🎁 The ADHD Family Quest is open till 11 March 2026
💻 Learn more at thefunctionalfamily.com

💛 Work With Sharon

Sharon Collon supports ADHD families to move from survival mode to functional, calm and connected — using ADHD-friendly systems that honour how sensitive nervous systems actually work.

Inside The ADHD Family Quest, families:

• Build environmental systems first (Base Camp)
• Learn behavioural strategies that work for ADHD brains
• Develop executive function skills for life
• Strengthen the whole family as a team
• Receive layered coaching support across 12 months

Parenting ADHD does get easier.

But not by accident.
It gets easier when you’re strategic.

You are too important to stay in survival mode.