What happens when the parenting advice you were given simply doesn’t work for the child in front of you? As Julie’s daughter turns 13, she and Bridget look back on thirteen years of learning, unlearning, advocating, getting it wrong and slowly coming to understand what this particular autistic child needed. Through lived experience, they unpack the things that changed everything: recognising masking, understanding the difference between what a child can do and what they can actually sustain, looking beneath behaviour, questioning traditional ideas of independence, and realising that a child appearing to cope doesn’t always mean they are coping. It’s a conversation about autism, yes, but also about motherhood, nervous systems, repair, advocacy, capacity and the humility of allowing the child in front of you to change the way you thought you were supposed to parent.


In this episode, Bridget and Julie discuss:
- What thirteen years of parenting an autistic daughter has taught Julie that she couldn't have known at the beginning
- Why autistic girls can be missed, misunderstood or appear to be coping when there is much more happening underneath
- Getting curious about behaviour rather than immediately trying to correct it
- The difference between “she can do it” and “she can sustain it”
- Why the hours after school, socialising or a demanding experience can tell you more than what you witnessed during it
Masking, meltdowns and why home can be where a child finally stops holding everything together
- Rethinking independence and recognising that the right support can actually create greater autonomy
- The difference between building useful skills and teaching a child to make themselves more convenient for the world
- Learning to advocate for your child while helping them develop the language to advocate for themselves
- The grief and repair involved in looking back at what you did before you understood what you understand now
- Why both nervous systems matter when you're parenting a child with significant needs
- Questioning expert advice when it doesn't match the child living in front of you
- Why learning about autism matters, but learning your particular child matters even more


Want support on this journey? Come join us inside Honey Club - where we melt these blocks together, one breath, one practice, one deep remembering at a time. Find out more at julietenner.love or visit: https://julie-tenner.newzenler.com/courses/honeyclub


Reach out to Bridget for 1:1 coaching - bridgetwood.life

Tune in for part 2 where we explore the parts of parenting where we’re still firmly living in the 90s.

In this two-part episode, we’re talking about the things we’ve deliberately held onto from the childhood we grew up in: boredom, chores without payment, hearing “no” without a 45-minute negotiation, talking to actual adults, losing without receiving a trophy, and being expected to figure some things out for yourself.

This isn’t about glorifying the “we survived, so they’ll survive” style of parenting or ignoring what we now understand about children, nervous systems and individual needs. It’s about asking whether, in our beautiful attempt to be more responsive and conscious parents, we sometimes step in too much.

Because resilience isn’t created by removing every hard thing. Sometimes it’s built when we lovingly hand over responsibility, tolerate our child’s discomfort and give them the glorious experience of discovering: *I can do hard things.*

In this episode, we discuss:

* Why boredom is not a parenting emergency, and what children discover when we stop filling every empty space for them.
* Why being part of a family means contributing to the family, without needing money, rewards or applause every time.
* The difference between supporting our kids and rescuing them from every uncomfortable consequence.
* Why we’re intentionally technology-light, and why sometimes kids can simply look out the bloody window.
* Why conscious parenting doesn’t mean negotiating every boundary, and why *“because I said so”* occasionally still has a place.
* The importance of expecting our kids to interact with adults, speak for themselves and gradually learn how to navigate the world without us doing it for them.
* Why not everything needs a trophy, and why losing, disappointment and not being the best at something are important experiences.
* The conscious *handover*: knowing when we’ve taught and scaffolded enough, and it’s time to step aside and let our children figure it out.
* Why resilience, grit and confidence are built through actually experiencing hard things, not having every hard thing removed.
* Why we don’t need to organise, mediate or manage every part of our children’s social lives.
* The value of age-appropriate freedom, risk, independence and letting children experience themselves as capable.
* What we absolutely *don’t* want to bring back from 90s parenting, and how we can keep the good without recreating the emotional disconnection.
* The bigger question underneath it all: *are we raising children who feel supported by us, while also knowing they can function without us?*


Want support on this journey? Come join us inside Honey Club - where we melt these blocks together, one breath, one practice, one deep remembering at a time. Find out more at julietenner.love or visit: https://julie-tenner.newzenler.com/courses/honeyclub


Reach out to Bridget for 1:1 coaching - bridgetwood.life

We might be conscious parents, but there are some parts of parenting where we’re still firmly living in the 90s.

In this two-part episode, we’re talking about the things we’ve deliberately held onto from the childhood we grew up in: boredom, chores without payment, hearing “no” without a 45-minute negotiation, talking to actual adults, losing without receiving a trophy, and being expected to figure some things out for yourself.

This isn’t about glorifying the “we survived, so they’ll survive” style of parenting or ignoring what we now understand about children, nervous systems and individual needs. It’s about asking whether, in our beautiful attempt to be more responsive and conscious parents, we sometimes step in too much.

Because resilience isn’t created by removing every hard thing. Sometimes it’s built when we lovingly hand over responsibility, tolerate our child’s discomfort and give them the glorious experience of discovering: *I can do hard things.*

In this episode, we discuss:

* Why boredom is not a parenting emergency, and what children discover when we stop filling every empty space for them.
* Why being part of a family means contributing to the family, without needing money, rewards or applause every time.
* The difference between supporting our kids and rescuing them from every uncomfortable consequence.
* Why we’re intentionally technology-light, and why sometimes kids can simply look out the bloody window.
* Why conscious parenting doesn’t mean negotiating every boundary, and why *“because I said so”* occasionally still has a place.
* The importance of expecting our kids to interact with adults, speak for themselves and gradually learn how to navigate the world without us doing it for them.
* Why not everything needs a trophy, and why losing, disappointment and not being the best at something are important experiences.
* The conscious *handover*: knowing when we’ve taught and scaffolded enough, and it’s time to step aside and let our children figure it out.
* Why resilience, grit and confidence are built through actually experiencing hard things, not having every hard thing removed.
* Why we don’t need to organise, mediate or manage every part of our children’s social lives.
* The value of age-appropriate freedom, risk, independence and letting children experience themselves as capable.
* What we absolutely *don’t* want to bring back from 90s parenting, and how we can keep the good without recreating the emotional disconnection.
* The bigger question underneath it all: *are we raising children who feel supported by us, while also knowing they can function without us?*

Want support on this journey? Come join us inside Honey Club - where we melt these blocks together, one breath, one practice, one deep remembering at a time. Find out more at julietenner.love or visit: https://julie-tenner.newzenler.com/courses/honeyclub


Reach out to Bridget for 1:1 coaching - bridgetwood.life

Feeling trapped by your life isn't always about changing your circumstances. Sometimes it's about changing the way you meet them. In this final episode of our three-part series, Bridget and Julie explore what happens after you've identified the stories keeping you stuck. They unpack how to reclaim the parts of yourself that feel lost beneath the weight of responsibility, why pleasure and self-care often trigger resistance instead of ease, and how to create more romance, aliveness and fulfilment without waiting for someone else to bring it to you.

If you've been longing to feel more like yourself again, this conversation offers practical, compassionate ways to reconnect with what you thought motherhood, partnership or adulthood had taken away.

In this episode, we discuss:

- Why feeling trapped is often less about your circumstances and more about your relationship with them.
- How to reclaim parts of yourself that feel buried beneath responsibility.
- Finding magic, pleasure and meaning within ordinary, everyday life.
- Why self-care can feel surprisingly difficult, even when you know you need it.
- The hidden beliefs, programming and rules that stop you receiving rest, joy and pleasure.
- Why the things that are good for your long-term wellbeing don't always feel like an immediate "yes."
- How to soften rigid thinking and create more flexibility in your life.
- Practical ways to pair difficult responsibilities with comfort and enjoyment.
- Creating romance by embodying the energy you want to experience, rather than waiting for someone else to create it.
- How pressure and disappointment quietly erode intimacy in relationships.
- Using imagination, books and story to reconnect with desire and possibility.
- The difference between outsourcing your happiness and becoming the creator of it.
- What genuine romance looks like beyond grand gestures.
- The importance of reciprocity, thoughtfulness and showing up for your partner in meaningful ways.
- Questions to help you notice where your life already contains more love, pleasure and possibility than you've been giving it credit for.
- How to become the source of more of what you're longing for, instead of waiting for life to deliver it.

Want support on this journey? Come join us inside Honey Club - where we melt these blocks together, one breath, one practice, one deep remembering at a time. Find out more at julietenner.love or visit: https://julie-tenner.newzenler.com/courses/honeyclub


Reach out to Bridget for 1:1 coaching - bridgetwood.life

Last episode, we started unpacking what’s actually underneath the feeling of being trapped by your life. This time, we take the next step: working out whether the thing making you miserable is an unavoidable fact of your life...or a “should” you’ve become so attached to that you can no longer see another way. Because while you might not be able to change the school run, your workload, your children, your partner or the responsibilities sitting on your shoulders, but you may have far more choice in how you experience them than you realise.

We explore radical acceptance, the exhausting and often painful pursuit of trying to change other people, and what becomes possible when you stop fighting with the reality of what is. This episode will help you question the expectations keeping you stuck, find where you still have choice and flexibility, and begin experimenting with different ways of living the life you actually have, rather than continually suffering because it isn’t the life you think it should be.

In this episode we discuss:

* How to work out whether the thing making you miserable is a fact or a “should”
* Why your expectations of how life, motherhood or your relationship should be may be making you suffer
* What happens when you keep waiting for your partner, children or circumstances to change before you can be happy
* Why trying to control and change the people you love is exhausting for everyone involved
* The difference between accepting your reality and resigning yourself to a life you hate
* How to find more choice when you feel like you have absolutely none
* Why you might be stuck choosing the same “flavour” of life without realising there are other options
* What to do when you can’t change the responsibility, but desperately need to change how it feels
* How to pair the unavoidable parts of your life with pleasure, play and things that make you feel more alive
* Why radical acceptance might be the thing that finally frees you from fighting with your life
* How to stop waiting for your life to change and start experimenting with how you experience it
* The second step in our three-part pathway towards feeling less trapped and finding more freedom, choice and fulfilment


Want support on this journey? Come join us inside Honey Club - where we melt these blocks together, one breath, one practice, one deep remembering at a time. Find out more at julietenner.love or visit: https://julie-tenner.newzenler.com/courses/honeyclub


Reach out to Bridget for 1:1 coaching - bridgetwood.life

What happens when you love your children, your partner and the life you’ve created...and still sometimes feel completely trapped by it?

In Part 1 of this three-part answer pathway, we respond to a listener who is buckling under the weight of motherhood, work, relationships and the relentless responsibility of being needed. Rather than giving you another list of things to do to “find yourself again”, we start somewhere deeper: understanding what is actually creating your suffering. We explore how comparing the life you have to the life you used to have, or the life you wish you could have, can leave you feeling increasingly resentful, burdened and stuck. We show you how to get specific about what you believe you’ve lost, what you’ve gained that you never wanted, and the evidence you may be unconsciously collecting to prove that your life is the problem.

This is the first step in moving from “I feel trapped by my life” towards understanding what you’re actually longing for, what needs to change, and where more freedom, fulfilment and choice might already be waiting for you.

In this episode we discuss:

* Why you can love your family and still feel trapped by your life
* What you’re actually longing for when you fantasise about escaping it all
* Why motherhood can leave you grieving the woman and freedom you used to have
* How to work out exactly what is making you feel so resentful, burdened and stuck
* Why comparing your life now to the life you used to have is making you suffer
* The stories you keep telling yourself that might be making your life feel even harder
* Why you keep finding more evidence that you’re trapped, unhappy or have lost yourself
* How to stop making your current life the problem without pretending you love everything about it
* What to do when you know something needs to change, but you have no idea what
* The first step towards feeling more freedom, choice and fulfilment in the life you already have

Want support on this journey? Come join us inside Honey Club - where we melt these blocks together, one breath, one practice, one deep remembering at a time. Find out more at julietenner.love or visit: https://julie-tenner.newzenler.com/courses/honeyclub


Reach out to Bridget for 1:1 coaching - bridgetwood.life