Squirrels, Penguins, And Parenting

In this episode I sit down with Steph Simpson, a late-identified ADHD mom on a pathway for autism assessment, to explore how a simple language shift—calling ADHD “squirrels” and autism “penguins”—reshaped her family’s daily life. Instead of labels that freeze kids in place, her home uses playful cues to redirect with warmth. When she glitches mid-task, a quiet “Mom, squirrels” brings her back without shame. The same approach helps her children navigate transitions, toothbrushing, and sensory overload.

Steph takes us through the emotional whiplash of diagnosis: the relief of being seen, the shock of a double whammy, and the end of the “I’m making it up” refrain. 

We also dive into her book, Squirrels, Odd Socks and Side Quests—born as a manual for her husband and now a neurodiversity-affirming series. Bite-sized chapters, black-and-white illustrations for colouring, hidden squirrels for fidgety focus, it’s built for real brains in real homes. 

Steph closes with the habits that anchor her parenting: model the mess, own the repair, and let kids watch you be kind to yourself so they learn to do the same.

If you’re navigating ADHD, autism, masking, or just the relentless side quests of family life, this conversation offers language, tools, and a gentler way to measure progress. Listen, share with a friend who needs the reframe, and leave a review to help more families find us.

You can connect with Steph on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SquirrelSideQuests

And you can find her book in places like Amazon.

The Untypical Parent Podcast needs you. 

If you've got a question you want answered. If you want to let me know your favourite episode. Or just want to reach out & say hi. Your message could be featured on the podcast. 

You can either use the email address in the show notes or you can message me on The Untypical Parent Podcast Instagram account. Just click here 

Chapters

• 0:00 Meet Steph And Her Family
• 3:08 Are You The Perfect Parent
• 5:24 Finding Confidence Through Late Diagnosis
• 9:19 Anger, Relief, And Being Seen
• 11:35 The Language Of Squirrels And Penguins
• 14:14 QB Testing And School Support
• 16:54 Odd Socks And Owning Your Quirks
• 19:14 Writing Squirrels, Odd Socks And Side Quests
• 21:34 Turning A Manual Into A Series
• 23:29 A Kids’ Book On Toothbrushing Sensory Struggles
• 25:34 Fidgets, Coloring, And Focus
• 27:49 Practical Parenting Wins And Repair
• 31:29 Links, Community, And Goodbye

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:29

Hi Steph, thank you ever so much for joining us on the Untypical Parent Podcast today. It is lovely to have you with us. Thank you for having me. Steph, tell the listeners a little bit about who you are. A nice little small subject to start off with. Tell us who you are. No. So I'm just a normal mom who's trying to keep all of the balls in the air, all the plates in the air, and just trying to survive being a mum. Recently diagnosed ADHD on a waiting list for autism. So yes, so I've got my spikes and I've definitely got my spaces and my chaos. But yeah, I'm just a normal mom who's trying to keep her head above water. Great. And who kind of who's in the background for you? What does your family look like? What's your kind of makeup of your family in the background? So I have a very, very, very patient husband.

unknown: 1:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 1:32

And anyone who's a squirrel will know why you're so patient. Yeah. Um, and I've got two beautiful little squirrels, um, a three-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy. They're my um yeah, they're what keep me going, what keep me seeing, but also drive me nuts at the same time. Yep, absolutely. I can definitely relate to that one. Mine are a bit older now, mine are 13 and 15, and I've got two boys. Um, so they're a bit older now, but uh yeah, they definitely keep us on our toes. And even when, and lots of people will know this when they're listening to the podcast, even when we think we've got it pinned with them, they rules change, don't they just and I don't get the memo about these rule shapes, they just seem to happen. I can remember thinking when my eldest was really little that I've got this nappy changing down pat, I can do it without even thinking. Then all of a sudden you learn a rule. And it's like, hold on, why are we leveling up now? I've just figured it out. And it feels like my parenting journey, this is what I've done all the way through. I've just figured something out. And then we get a new developmental leap. Well, that leads me into ask the question that I ask all the guests that come onto the podcast, Steph, is Steph, are you the perfect parent? For who?

unknown: 2:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:53

Okay. But nobody's a perfect parent because we are all just trying to figure it out. We're just trying to stay on stay floor.

unknown: 3:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:04

And that looks different for different people. So for my kids, I'm just squirrel enough and just mum enough. Yeah. Someone else's kids, I'm probably two crackers. So yeah, depends on perspective. Do you know what? I don't think anyone's ever said that. For whom? It depends. Yeah, I like that. So thinking about that, I was just thinking about your kind of you talked and briefly touched on what your kind of parenting journey, whatever that is, you know, kind of as we go through being parents. Um, and you feel like when you talk, you're quite confident about where you are as a parent and who you are as a parent. Yes. Has that always been the case, Def? Or no. Okay. Okay. I've spent seven almost seven years feeling like I'm failing every single day.

unknown: 3:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:55

But I'm starting to appreciate the wins as um we start to figure out what squirrels my children have, what little extras they have going on. It's helping me to see that actually I'm learning, and as long as I'm learning with them about it. Do I shout? 100%. Do they have loads of screen time? 100%. Do I make them fresh cooked meals every night? Not a hope. No are they alive? Yes. That's the first win. Are they happy? 99% of the time, yeah. Are they loved? 100% of the time. 200% of the time. And it's all winning. And that's the way I feel about it. As long as they feel happy and safe, then I'm winning. As soon as that starts to slide, then I need to learn some more. Because that's my job. And where did that come from, Steph? You said that you didn't used to be like that, but that's now kind of you've you've settled into that. Where's that come from? I suspect that was years of therapy. It is um come, it's a mixture of both. Getting the diagnosis um was a huge thing for me, uh, as it is for anyone who's late diagnosed, um, because all of a sudden they weren't failures, they were an unrealistic expectation that I had on myself. Um and it is, most of us put it on ourselves that you're looking around at all of these children at the school gate, and they've all got their pretty little plaits in, and they've got their little balls that are matching with the uniform. My parents just walked in there with our shoes on the wrong feet, our trousers on backwards, our hair hasn't been brushed. Well, I've I tried to grab my fingers through it, but it was washed last night, so we're winning. But when you're walking into the school environment and you're looking at all of these little smart, beautifully turned-out humans, and you've got my feral creature in the middle, it's like, okay then, and she's me. She is a work walk-in version of a confident me.

SPEAKER_01: 6:04

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 6:05

So your diagnosis has had a quite a big impact for you. Absolutely. It's really interesting this bit. I always like to talk to people about this bit because I'm late diagnosed, but dyslexic. Um, and I went for my diagnosis and was kind of like, I'm not really sure whether I need to go for it. I kind of know I am dyslexic, but do I really need a piece of paper? Um also I was really, really worried they would go, no, you're not. And I would go, uh oh, what now? And then I wasn't I wasn't prepared for how angry I felt. Um, and it was really, really so many emotions. So there was the relief of getting it. Finally, I got the report through and thought crikey, you know, I've worked with dyslexic kids and I didn't actually realise the nuances, and you know, a bit like autism or ADHD, it can affect each of us differently and present differently. So getting to know really what my kind of areas of need were, but then also what my amazing strengths were as well, being having a dyslexic brain, but also it's this anger that I had gone through so much of my life not knowing and being highly anxious, stressed, you know. If only I'd known, would it have been different? Would I have had less, you know, anxiety or stress a little weakness or whatever? And I suppose I'm just really curious because if I I just am, is how how that felt for you going through diagnosis and coming out the other side. So it was a bit of an interesting one. I wasn't bothered about myself. Okay. The reason I went for diagnosis was I could save my son, and I knew that a family link makes it easier to get them to listen to you. So as I was starting to look through all the symptoms and stuff, I was like, Well, that's normal. Well, that's normal, well, that's normal. Oh, yeah. Okay, and then the penny drops, it was like, and then the people that I was working with were like, duh, you've just figured this out. I was like, the only reason you can keep up with me is the fact that your brain works the same way. Like, oh, oh. Um, so that was the reason I went for the diagnosis. I may go off on side quests, just pull me back. We're up for that. Um, so I went for the diagnosis, and when he um said to me, You're you have combined ADHD, I burst in tears. Did you? And and he was like, Oh, okay, I I wasn't expecting that response. Can you explain to me why it's that response? And it was because my entire life and all through the process of getting um the referrals in and all of the rest of it, I thought it was all just in my head. I thought I was making it up. I thought in my head, in myself, that I was just being a drama queen. So so when he said it out loud, and then he said, We actually think uh you've got a very high score for um baseline autism, and I was like, What? What? You've got a double whammy in one spot. Yeah, I hadn't even it hadn't even occurred to me oh wow that I might have um any autism in me. And it just it threw me. I didn't so much get the anger because I am very much a um my life has turned me and changed me into the human that I am today. So if I wasn't that human, I wouldn't be with my husband because I wouldn't like him if I hadn't had all of the little bits because I didn't like him when I was 16. So I wouldn't have had my children because I wouldn't have been with Dave. So then I wouldn't have had them. So I'm yeah, I probably wouldn't have gotten married to my previous marriage, and that wouldn't have ended, so I wouldn't have learned the lessons that I had to learn to become the person that I am now, and I'm as a mother, I'm very confident as a human. I'm confident in my skin of who I am, I'm a good person. Comes to anything else, I'm like but that's just my little quirks. I love that then. I think that's such a much more healthy way of looking at it, isn't it? That actually it's formed me in the way that I am today and why I am, where I am, and who who I've got around me. And you know, it is it's a nice way to think about things like that, I think. And what's really interesting, I think, is I've just I've listened to you talk as you've been talking. I'm gonna link now in seamlessly um into the next bit and what I want to talk about with you is you've talked about squirrels. Yes now, Steph, talk to us about squirrels because people might be thinking, what is she talking about? She keeps talking about squirrels, what are they? I don't know whether you can see him. Describe it for oh, there is a little squirrel. So on the screen, there's a little squirrel that Steph's got holding up. Yeah, yes, so this is my emotional support squirrel. Okay, this is the link. Um, so we do not um use the words ADHD or autism in our home. Okay, we do we do not use that label because I don't want either of my children to turn around and say, I can't do that because I've got ADHD. That is not an acceptable answer. Having squirrels is ADHD in our home, and penguins is autism in our home. The reason being, squirrels are all over the place, always chasing the nuts, so that one's quite an obvious one. Yeah, autism. The reason we call it penguins is um pebbling. Yeah, your penguin will bring you a pebble when it loves you. He wanna see my son's pebble draw. I say yes, so he's part squirrel, part penguin, we're convinced of it. Um, so it just what we see instead is we will say, Can we have a look and see what's going on with these squirrels? So, like brushing teeth and things like that, I'll say to my son, come on, mate, squirrels, let's pull them back in. But on the same token as we'll go into later, um, if I'm going and making a drink or something for the kids and I glitch in the middle of it, like we all do, we've walked into the kitchen, no idea why I'm here. Yeah, then I look over at the bench and the stuff that needs tag and then I think, okay, I'll just I'll put the kettle on and I'll just go to the fridge and I'll get some milk, then I'll realise that the fridge is dirty and I'll start stripping the fridge down. Yeah, yeah. And all of this is going on at the same time in my head that squirrels going after all the nuts. Yeah. And then the kids will say to me, Mom, squirrels, and I'll be like, drink, right, on it. And it's just our way of saying, just bringing you back into the room, really.

SPEAKER_01: 13:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 13:21

And it's a softer way than doing it, than saying, I can't do this because I've got ADHD. Yes, you can. I'm a firm believer, you can, you just need to find a way around. It's not easy. There's been many tears and tantrums from all of us, mostly me. But you can do it, you've just got to keep pushing. So it's really interesting that you use that language at home. Do the kids do they know their diagnosis? Do they know they've they've diagnosed as ADHD? So I uh my boy, Abs, he um he sort of don't sorry, I'm trying to uh uh articulate what I want to say. So he he is still awaiting official diagnosis. Okay. But I have had him QB tested. Yeah. Um I don't know if you know what the QB test is like. Yes, basically it's where from from six you can be tested with this, and it's a diagnostic test, but it does not diagnose fully because obviously you need to speak to a psychiatrist, you need to go through your history and everything to get a full diagnosis. But what it does is you sit at a computer and you're clicking when you see things on a screen, you have a ball on your head which is registering your movement all of the time, um, and you do that. Well, he did it for 15 minutes because obviously he's only six, so it's not a long one for the kiddos, and that's it has a control group of children with ADHD and a control group of children without ADHD, and it measures where your movements are in that control group, and he measured very, very highly, but he also measured to be masking a lot, which is why the school can't see what's going on. Um, so he's been part diagnosed, yeah. Got you. And when they're waiting for the that data is analysed by psychologists, so it it does have mental health input. And I've given you the very, very simple terms of it there. There's also two people in a room watching every movement and recording it. And oh wow, okay. So it is quite an in-depth test. Um on the back of that, the school have automatically started putting things in place for him and started to support him in that way. Good. Because it's it's evidence, yeah, and that was the whole reason I got it. It was the fact that the school was saying there is absolutely nothing here, and it's because he's a perfectionist and he he can mask. So they weren't seeing anything, whereas I was seeing some real interesting behaviors, so they were fun at the very loosest sense of the word. Um, yeah, so it got them on boards. So yeah, yeah, scrolls. It kind of gives you all a language around what's going on for each of you, and then your little one as well is only three, wasn't she? So she's teeny still. Um, but she's terrifying in a kind of good way. Uh-huh. Depends on which which burn you're gonna get. So it depends on how she wakes up. Sometimes she can wake and come bounding in the room and she's like, Mammy, I'm awake. Hi, let's go downstairs. And sometimes she's like, Okay, okay, okay. That's okay, that's a mean face. Let's not start the day with that. Let's go down in the kitchen and do some dancing. Yeah. I'm really interested, Steph, why you chose to use kind of the animals. I I like how the kind of I could when I saw, and we're gonna go on to it in a minute again, put seamless link into your book. Um, and I read your title, I just thought, oh, do you know what? That that's a brilliant title. Um, but I'm just wondering where you came up with that. Well, why, and I suppose you've given the reason why behind it, but where did it come from? So it's because in my younger years, yeah, um, when uh I didn't know what I was, I didn't know who I was, all the rest of it. I'm just a random human, a little bit quirky. I always used to be a little bit obsessed with secret squirrel spy. Okay. So so when you see squirrels and they're going, he he's been a little squirrel spy. Yeah. Yeah, like a child. Everything about me is childlike on a certain level. Um, so this was while I was um living and working on a military base. And there were squirrels everywhere, and we used to say secret squirrel spies out, and we used to go looking for the um secret squirrels with the dogs, obviously, because it was fun. Um, and it was the movement, and that is that's what hits home with me was is the movement. And so squirrel became the term for me. And yeah, I think my husband was probably the one who said Stephie's squirreling. I was like, Oh, okay, sorry. And that was pre-diagnosis. That was yeah. You're squirreling. Yeah, or tigger, that's me. That's one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you often hear as well, people talk, don't you? Um, you know, when they're talking to possibly someone that with the with with ADHD, is that they'll go, oh, squirrel, because they've gone off somewhere else. You can I often hear people say that. Um, so I think that's what made sense to me when I saw it. I just thought I can see where you're going with this. And I suppose what that probably brings us into, Steph, is to talk then a little bit about your book. So give us the title of your book. So the title is Squirrels, Odd Socks and Side Quests. That's brilliant. It is a really good title. I don't think I'd ever be able to think that up again. And it was just because that's that is the content of the book. Yeah. It's the brain going with the 15 tabs open. So there's your squirrels, your side quests where you're supposed to be on something, but the squirrels are talking different languages to you, and they're going off in five directions. Um, and the odd socks was a thing. So I can't wear matching socks. Oh Steph, do you know what? My son has a thing about odd socks, and he likes to wear odd socks, and I think this is where you're going. I honestly, and he still needs sometimes a bit of a hand to get his socks on, and I just I'm not, I can't even look. They don't match, don't show me them. And he thinks it's hilarious and now comes down with the most odd socks he can possibly find. And honestly, I just I can hardly look at it, Steph. I can hardly look at it. I get that, because my husband's exactly the same. Yes, but he's like, I'm not touching it. He'll pair them and I'll have to unpair them. Yeah, my son and you I think we'd get on really well. It's a control thing. So um for a lot of my life, obviously, I felt like everything was controlled around me. And could working on um military bases and stuff like that, everything is hyper-controlled. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the only thing that I felt like I could control was my socks. So so so that was probably me sticking my finger up at the uh establishment. So really having me odd socks on because you can't do anything about it. And are you one of those people that have your your socks are quite out there, they're quite different socks, or are you kind of digital they can be odd but quite oh, she's gonna show us everyone, just in case you haven't got video. So this one's got squirrels on. Yeah, I'm gonna struggle to see the next And this one's got squirrels on. Socks. But people that can't see, because they're just listening, they might both have squirrels on, but they couldn't be more different. That's just my kind of oh can't look, can't look. You gotta love a little bit of bright orange sock. There was one bright orange sock, yes. The other one was like a cream colour. So, yes, this it this is it's just one of my quirks and it fitted in really well with the title. I love it. So tell what's the book about, Steph? So you've written this book, who's it for? What's it about? So it is it it's for parents in general, to be honest. It's uh as much as it was written with my brain and mind because when um after getting diagnosed and all the rest of it, I did feel very alone for quite a while um trying to figure it all out. Um, and I wanted other people to be seen, but it actually started out as an instruction guide for my husband. Did it? Yes, so yeah, because we never do anything simply, do we? Um it was supposed it started out as an instruction guide on how my boy feels in certain situations, like when I ask him to go and brush his teeth when he's in the middle of playing. So it it runs through things like how his arms and his legs feel really, really heavy, his tummy starts to feel butterflies, and he just his brain just wants to play with um the toy, but he doesn't want to be bad, so he wants to listen to what we're saying and do what we're asking him to. So it's like climbing a mountain to get up those stairs to do, and then he needs to have somebody stand with him, and then he he puts a toothpaste on the brush, but it's sticky, and then they've got the you've got the sensory issues where he puts it in his mouth and it feels tangy, and so there's nothing pleasant about this situation at all in his worlds. Um, and my husband we suspect is fairly typical. Um wouldn't have a clue, I'm not quite sure what typical is, um but he couldn't understand to him, it was just defiance, and he couldn't understand. Okay. So he was getting cross and then Alfie shuts down. So it's like you can't shout because he shuts down immediately, so you have to find ways around it. Um, so it started off as that. It started off as this big information guide, me explaining how I feel during these situations so that he could help understand the boy better. Then I I showed it to um a friend of mine who is an editor, not in an editor's role. I showed it to her as a friend to make sure that it made sense before I gave it to my husband. And she was like, Steph, we need to publish this. And I well, it's it's like three chapters. What are you on about? We need to publish it. She says, Well, we need to pad it out, but I bet you've got hundreds more stories. So this never set out as a book. This set out as a manual for your husband. Yeah, it was just yeah, I don't do anything I'm supposed to. It's it never goes the way it's supposed to. So that's the other side of it. I wrote the book in three weeks, which is I went into a hyperbox and did nothing else for three weeks. Okay, okay. I see this is where ADHD works great, isn't it? Because you're gonna get things done quite quickly if you can hyper focus on it. Yeah, yeah. It's uh it has its challenges in the fact that because I was hyper-focused on that, I wasn't doing the work that we need to earn money. So I I was just I was just writing, and that's all I could think about. And literally, my body was itching to be able to do it, and every time I try to do something else, I couldn't get rid of this itch that I just had to, and that's why it was written in three weeks. The second one's been written. It's currently with illustrations. You're off.

unknown: 25:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 25:28

There's seven books in the series, or there will be. Um, but I've I've slowed myself down now because the second one's in illustration, and obviously, um, it all costs to get these done. And the second one's a child's one. So Okay. So this one that you've done, your first one, is that out now? Yep. It is on Amazon, it's on my website. Um if it's bought from my website, you get a signed version. Um and a couple of little extra goodies. Yeah. If you get it from Amazon, you get it quicker because it'll be there the next day, basically. Yeah. Um, so yeah, it's it's it's all around. Nice. So it's basically kind of like little stories, just you explaining what it's like in our world to be ADHD in in everyday life. And little things like brushing your teeth. Yeah. So um the chapters are intentionally short, bite-sized, yeah. So that they work with my brain. Otherwise, I can't, unless I'm hyper focused and I can't do it.

SPEAKER_01: 26:31

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 26:32

Um, so the it's very intentional that it's bite-sized, you can read the whole book back to back in three hours. Okay. Because I did. But the chapters, you can like go to a chapter that appeals to you and it doesn't mess up a storyline or anything like that. Because it's just snapshots of the daft things I've done pre-diagnosis and the stuff that I've done since diagnosis to try and get my head around everything. Amazing. Sounds brilliant. And then obviously you've got number two on its way, and that's more kid-focused. Yep, that one is a um so it's like a toddler's book. Okay. So so that one is um about the toothbrush story, but from the perspective of the child, and it's illustrating all of the different things that his body goes through. Yeah, yeah. And it's a family of squirrels, obviously. Um so yeah, it's it's really, really sweet. It's all ramen and what a lovely way, I think, because you know, sometimes it is really hard, especially when our kids go through you know, diagnosis at whatever point, is being able to use a language that means something to them, especially when they're young, because the terms ADHD and you know being autistic, um, what does that actually mean every day to a child? I suppose and that's to an adult, really. Yeah, true. Because it's so diverse. Yeah. Yeah. The scales on them are is like huge. So yeah, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. And I did my first draft and got my son to read it, and he was like, Well, it's a bit boring. I was like, right, okay, drawing boards. So I rewrote it because it was a bit boring. If my six thought it was boring, it wasn't getting printed. They just have a way, don't they, of cutting through the crap and just saying, yeah, a bit boring, mum. Yeah, it was a bit boring. It was alright, but it was a bit boring. Um, so this one is gonna have like find it's in the pages, and because that's one of the things with the um original book. Every picture in there's got a hidden squirrel. Um, but you would need a magnifying glass to see it. So this is gonna keep people busy with that squirrel brain. There's something else. And the whole reason the pictures inside the book are all black and white, and that's in case you need to fidget, and you can colour them in. Oh, brilliant! So you can colour in what oh love it. Okay. There's loads of stuff going on in this book. Yeah, it's it's got lots of little nuances too. Yeah, really. It's because I find it hard to just sit and read, but I can st I can read and colour. Can you? And that helps. And that helps with your focus for reading. Yeah. Yeah, it's like as I'm chatting to you, I've got my fidget here, and I'm I'm whiffing it and I'm like, I'm doing all this. But yes, it just it helps me to be able to focus on what's being said because my brain's concentrating on something else. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It does. Well, I've got mine too. Mine sits on the desk with me as well. Okay, so this sounds brilliant. So, people, what I'll do is I'll put a link for this in the show notes so people can find it if they would like to. Um, just kind of starting to wrap up, Steph, and thinking about just if there's some parents out there that have been listening today and they're, you know, are thinking, I'm having a bit of a tricky time at the moment, and you know, both you know, you've you've had some tricky times, and so have I through whilst we've been parenting. Have you got any kind of top tips, a little bit of advice that really helped you whilst kind of you were finding your confidence, I suppose, and you're wriggling into your yeah, this is where I'm okay and I feel okay with this. You got a top tape horror. So um one of the things that was once said to me, which really, really hit home, was the fact that my children are watching. So my children are watching. So I have to show them when I make mistakes. I have to show them when I'm sad. I have to show them when things are going right. I have to show them when I'm frustrated. I have to show them when I need to breathe because they're learning from what I show them, not what I tell them. So I had to learn to be kind to myself so that my children will know that they can be kind to themselves. So that's the biggest takeaway I've I've probably got is your kids are watching. What do you want them to see? Yeah. What do you want them to learn? Yeah. Do you want them to learn that you're a perfectionist? Because I am a perfectionist. Yeah. Or do you want them to learn that it's okay to colour outside the lines every now and then? Yeah. So now I'll get frustrated with things and um my three-year-old will say, it's no matters, Mammy, you can try it again. I love it. It just said I'm I'm doing something right. Yeah. Because that's her automatic is no matters. It's just an accident, no matter. And that's so nice, isn't it? That when you can sit back and go, Yeah, I'm doing this alright. I'm doing alright here. Yeah. Yeah. Never be afraid to show your true self to your children. You can always say sorry. Because you are gonna shout. And you are gonna say things that you don't mean because they just come out of your mouth.

SPEAKER_01: 32:05

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: 32:05

As long as you're accountable for what you say and you you apologize and say, Mummy should not have said that. That that was just my angries coming out and I couldn't keep them in. That was that was on me, not you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that that's that's my way of parenting. And that repair is so important, isn't it? Being able to go, do you know what? I'm I'm not perfect and I made a mistake and I'm sorry, and showing our kids that we can say we're sorry doesn't matter that they're kids and we're grown-ups. And I'm you know, sometimes I think grown-ups find it very, very difficult to say I'm sorry to kids. Absolutely. Um I've got to say it, but it's devil knows. Yeah, whereas I'm like, I can go in and fully explain, yeah, right. Okay, my angries escaped and they shouldn't have done, I should have had more control. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Steph, thank you ever so much for coming on. It's been really lovely to talk to you and find out more about squirrels and about penguins and about the book and a bit about you as well. As I said, what I will do is make sure um if you check out the show notes, there will be links for Steph on her um social media platforms, but also where you can get the book from if you're interested in that as well. And they can come find you on places like Facebook, can't they, Steph, and have a chat with you or say hi or whatever. We've got a lovely open little um page where we've got lots of squirrels in there who are just randomly posts the chaos every day. And you can jump on and go, Oh my word, yes, that happened to me last week because nice they do. Kids don't do what you expect them to do. No, they don't. They do so. I've yeah, I keep telling them that this is not how it's meant to go. This I did not smoke.

unknown: 33:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 33:52

Oh, thanks ever so much, Steph. I'll put all that information in the show notes. You can find Steph there um and her book, and that just leaves me to say thanks. Thanks again, Steph, for coming in and um, it's been lovely chatting with you. Thank you for having me.