TPP 015: A Conversation with 11-year-old Asher About Travel and Vacation Strategies
episode
Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
26 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 3 hours ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Why does planning ahead make vacations easier for neurodivergent kids?
What do you think has worked the best for you? Because I'm sure you've noticed vacations are different for you now too. What has helped you the most?
I think that all the planning. It's very helpful to know what's going to happen.
Why is that so helpful for you? I
just like knowing what's going to happen because it means I can prepare for it ahead of time. I can like set my all my expectations and not be wrong.
Welcome to the Tilt Parenting Podcast, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed at inspiring, informing, and supporting parents raising differently wired kids. I'm your host, Debbie Reber, and today's episode features another conversation with my 11-year-old son, Asher. We know that a lot of families are traveling this summer and going on holidays, whether to the beach, camping, national parks, trips abroad, and we also know that vacations can be equal parts awesome and difficult for families with differently wired kids. So today, Asher and I are going to tell you about the many different strategies we've tried and tweaked over the years to help make our vacations go more smoothly.
Of course, life is life and we're not looking for happily ever after here, but we have come up with some strategies that have absolutely allowed our family to not only enjoy the vacations much more than before, but also grow closer together in the process. So we're going to get into that in just a moment. To learn more about this podcast and Tilt, the revolution for parents raising atypical kids, visit www.tiltparenting.com. My husband and I love to travel. It's one of our favorite things to do. And when my husband's work asked us to move abroad for an indefinite amount of time, we leapt at the opportunity because we knew it meant we'd get to travel a ton and explore Europe, a place we really hadn't spent much time in before moving to Amsterdam three years ago.
We did travel a fair bit in the US when Asher was younger, but the majority of these trips were either to Pennsylvania and Maryland to see my family or California and Oregon to visit Darren's family, scattered with a few family vacations to places like Orlando, Phoenix, New York and the Jersey Shore. But we realized pretty early on that we had a problem. And maybe it's a problem you've experienced too. See, while we loved to travel, it didn't necessarily bring out the best in Asher. In fact, it often ratcheted up the intensity level from highly discombobulating to flat out catastrophic. New routines, busier schedules, strange beds, different foods. For a highly inflexible little person with sensory issues, vacations were the perfect storm.
It was the fall before we moved that I had my first aha moment about the Asher vacation conundrum. So I actually wanted to start by talking about what happened. I don't know if you remember this. Actually, you're showing me Mickelson. Mickelson, for those of you who are listening, is Asher's... How would you describe Mickelson? Brand. He's Asher's friend. He's a one-of-a-kind stuffy, for lack of a better word, but he's a monster. Because monsters need friends, too. Because they do. And we got Mikkerson in Victoria, and we were on holiday with Asher's dad and my husband Darren's parents.
Particularly
after
we mentioned him in this episode.
Isn't it? So do you remember that vacation much? It was probably four years ago when you were about seven.
Yeah, kind of. I remember the part where I saw Mickerson.
Yeah. It was love at first sight.
I had to, like,
do chores for a month. Yes. To pay for him. That's true. It was so worth it. So the reason I wanted to talk about Victoria was we took your dad's parents, grandma and grandpa, to Victoria for a weekend.
How did Asher’s first ‘aha’ moment change the family’s travel routine?
It was a really short trip. We were living in Seattle at the time, and we took them to Victoria for a weekend, and they had a lot of things they wanted to see, and we had a lot of things we wanted to do, and you wanted a lot of time to just chill out in the hotel.
With Mickelson.
No, this was even before you got Mickelson.
Oh!
But I remember we went out to dinner in the Stone Age.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why does planning ahead make vacations easier for neurodivergent kids?
0:00–3:49
2
How did Asher’s first ‘aha’ moment change the family’s travel routine?
3:49–6:59
3
What are the Family Goals and Vacation Concerns worksheets and how are they used?
6:59–10:04
4
How does the collaborative problem‑solving model prevent meltdowns on trips?
10:04–13:55
5
What does a detailed daily planner look like and why does it help Asher?
13:55–16:59
6
How does the departure‑day whiteboard schedule reduce travel stress?
16:59–20:52
7
Why are chill‑out time and simple rewards like gelato important for vacation success?
20:52–23:51
8
What final tips does Debbie give parents for smoother family vacations?
23:51–26:49
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
TPP 266a: A Conversation with Poet and Advocate LeDerick Horne
TPP 522: A Whole Child Approach to ADHD with Phil Boucher, M.D.
TPP 091a: A Conversation With Steve Silberman About His Book “Neurotribes”
TPP 521: A Conversation with Dr. Peter Gray About Restoring Childhood
TPP 253a: Advocate and Author Jonathan Mooney on Why Normal Sucks
TPP 520: Dr. Özgür Bolat on Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids