Ep. 137 - The 10 Hardest Lessons I Learned in 2025 As A Mom of 2 PDA Kids (Part 1)

January 14, 2026·50 min·5 clips

Casey shares the 10 hardest lessons she learned in 2025 as a mom of PDA children.

This episode features Casey, the host of the At Peace Parents Podcast and a mother of two children with Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA), reflecting on difficult parenting lessons from the past year. She specifically addresses parents of demand-avoidant children, drawing from her personal and professional experience. The episode is structured as part one, covering the first five of ten lessons. Casey's first lesson relearned in 2025 involves the challenging dynamics of parenting a child in burnout. She connects these current lessons to her experience six years prior when her 11-year-old son, Cooper, first entered burnout. A significant revelation in 2025 was learning that her younger son, William, age 7, is also PDA as he entered his own burnout phase. The lessons are framed as painful but necessary insights gained through direct experience. Casey aims for her reflections to provide clarity and community for her listeners. One insight is that these hard lessons often repeat across different children and stages within the same family. The episode underscores the ongoing and relearned nature of navigating PDA and burnout. Casey's professional work with hundreds of parents informs her perspective on leading children out of burnout. The tone is confessional and empathetic, focusing on shared struggle rather than simple solutions. The episode maintains a conversational and supportive tone, directly addressing the listener. It is educational but rooted in personal narrative and lived experience. Parents of neurodivergent children, especially those navigating PDA or demand avoidance, would find this episode highly relatable. Listeners seeking purely clinical advice or detached parenting strategies might prefer a different format.

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