Navigating Special Needs & Difficult Friendships

So many of you absolutely LOVED the podcast episode my real-life friend Misty Bailey & I recorded about how I’m overcoming my struggle with fear, friendship, and finding balance. In fact, it was one of her most popular episodes right out of the gate! It makes me happy that so many of you are encouraged when Misty & I share about our struggles together – we always hope you can learn from our trials.

I had so much fun recording that podcast episode with Misty that I told her I’d love to be brought back as a guest again sometime!

And then she approached me about co-recording an episode to answer a question a mom wrote in. I read the question and immediately gave a big, fat NO! I don’t have a special needs child so I felt underqualified, uncomfortable, and just… no.

Here’s the question Misty was asked:

My daughter has some special needs that have not been diagnosed but are apparent.  I’m listening to your podcast on friendships and would love a podcast on children that have “needs” and friendships… theirs and ours as moms. Even in the same homeschool community and church family. Would you do a  podcast on special needs children being left out and the family being left out… how to handle the isolation when we are the biggest cheerleaders for our children. What do we do when we are looked at as weird or strange?

After a little back and forth, Misty reassuring me that I would be focusing mostly on the friendship aspect, plus me feeling convicted about not wanting to help the other mom simply due to nervousness, I gave a reluctant okay – with the understanding that if I gave bad advice, my parts could be edited out!

I am so glad I said yes even though I was scared.

Misty and I got really vulnerable and deep in this episode. We talked about struggles our own children have had, how we’ve overcome them, and what to do when there’s nothing we can do.

Regardless of your education choice, if your child has special needs or has dealt with isolation, this podcast episode will help you to not feel so alone. If you don’t have a special needs child or if your child hasn’t dealt with isolation, I think the podcast episode will help you to have some insight into what it’s like for people who do have those struggles.

Here are just a few things that Misty & I cover:

• We can’t make our kids be friends with other kids. But, how can we teach our kids to be inclusive and supportive of those different from them?
• How do you handle conflict amongst friends in communities where the kids are going to continue seeing each other but just don’t get along?
• What do you do when you flat out have a mean girl situation and you can see that your child is being left out intentionally?
• How can we encourage our kids to be set apart like God calls us to be?

Subscribe to Joyfully Homeschooling in your podcast player and select episode 78, or click below to listen!

Misty & I already have three more co-recordings of Joyfully Homeschooling podcast episodes up our sleeves – one that airs this Friday and two that will air in 2020! But we’d love to hear from you: What topics would you like to see Misty & I cover together? Leave a comment and let me know!