Annette Hines, host of Parenting Impossible – The Special Needs Survival Podcast hosts a minisode to address how to combat feelings of being unmotivated or uninterested in life. When you recognize that you're a little off, it's probably time to sit and reflect on your goals and make a list to identify your tolerations. Ask yourself: "What am I tolerating in my life that I should not be putting up with?" Tolerations can be simple or complex to resolve. Once you start to identify and categorize yo...
Jun 23, 2022•16 min
Annette Hines , host of Parenting Impossible – The Special Needs Survival Podcast starts the podcast talking about her recent live video post in the Circle of Care Facebook private group open to anyone in the disability community in which she asked: "If I could do one thing for you today to make your life better, what would it be? Dream big." Coming from a place of gratitude, Annette shares how important the gift of service is through asking others how we can help. Being a servant leader to your...
Jun 16, 2022•46 min
Annette Hines host of Parenting Impossible – The Special Needs Survival Podcast starts the podcast reflecting on the role of fathers in the disability community. With Father's Day approaching, Annette Hines will interview three different guests who are fathers and share unique perspectives from mothers. Our topic in this episode is about honoring the worth of all people and the universal need to be seen that are fundamental in the lasting values Fred Rogers taught in the Neighborhood. Annette Hi...
Jun 09, 2022•51 min
Annette Hines , host of Parenting Impossible – The Special Needs Survival Podcast starts the podcast honoring the memory of disability advocate, and mom Julie Beckett, who passed at the age of 72. Julie is a champion in the disability community who fought to allow children with disabilities to live at home while receiving care covered by Medicaid. The Katie Beckett Waiver, named after her daughter, has changed so many families’ lives for the better. Since our topic in this episode is about chang...
Jun 02, 2022•50 min•Ep. 151
Getting ready to retire and have a disabled adult child in your care? In this episode, Annette Hines host of Parenting Impossible – The Special Needs Survival Podcast shares her tips on the 3 Things you should consider before you retire should you have a disabled adult child? Annette goes into detail on updating your financials, looking at healthcare and health insurance, updating your “Circle of Care” and a bonus tip on estate and special needs planning. Please join Annette as she explores this...
May 26, 2022•24 min•Ep. 150
Annette Hines , host of Parenting Impossible – The Special Needs Survival Podcast tackles the world of travel for families with kids with Autism as well as other special needs. Dawn Barclay , book author and writer of travel, shares with us her new book, Traveling Different -Vacation Strategies for Parents of the Anxious, the Inflexible, and the Neurodiverse . Dawn makes traveling more possible with this encouraging book and the wonderful tips she gives in this episode. Be a more confident paren...
May 19, 2022•45 min•Ep. 149
Does your child have big emotions, which are loud or quiet? Do you as a caregiver or parent have a challenging time with these emotions? In today’s episode Annette Hines , host of Parenting Impossible – The Special Needs Survival Podcast talks with a Psychologist, Parenting Specialist, host of Your Parenting Long Game podcast, and creator of The Long Game Method , Rachel Bailey , about raising children with big emotions. Rachel works with families to develop a long game parenting plan instead of...
May 12, 2022•45 min•Ep. 148
What are the latest updates and happenings in the World of Disability? Annette Hines host of Parenting Impossible – The Special Needs Survival Podcast gives tips on navigating the Social Security office reopening, the current state of employment and job coaching programs, and the latest in healthcare including the funding of healthcare, research, and institutional bias. Please join Annette as she explores these crucially important topics that affect our kids, families, caregivers, and parents in...
May 05, 2022•25 min•Ep. 147
How do you empower your teen with ASD, ADHD and executive functioning challenges to transfer their video games skills into real life success? Dr. Randy Kulman , clinical psychologist, author, and founder and president of LearningWorks for Kids joins Annette Hines , host of Parenting Impossible – The Special Needs Survival Podcast to talk about his work with teens using the power of playing video games. Having a healthy balance of play is important in developing personal skills your teen will use...
Apr 28, 2022•44 min•Ep. 146
Don’t focus on what you can’t do, but what you CAN do is great advice from Dr. Michelle Hu on raising a deaf and/or hard of hearing child. Annette Hines , host of Parenting Impossible – The Special Needs Survival Podcast , talks with Dr. Michelle Hu, pediatric audiologist, mom, and hard of hearing herself about her life’s journey and creating Mama Hu Hears website, and an online course, "My Child Has Hearing Loss, Now What?" where parents can find guidance and resources to be prepared in support...
Apr 21, 2022•40 min•Ep. 145
How do you help your child be successful in school? Annette Hines , host of Parenting Impossible – The Special Needs Survival Podcast talks with Jessika Shields , licensed educational psychologist, former teacher, parent of four, owner of a parent mentoring company Stronger Minds, Stronger Youth , and host of Parent Them Successful podcast, about how to utilize your schools best resource, the school psychologist. Inside schools, the educational psychologist plays many roles to support students i...
Apr 14, 2022•44 min•Ep. 144
This episode goes to the dogs! Whether a service, therapy or emotional support dog that is! Join Annette Hines , host of Parenting Impossible - The Special Needs Survival Podcast , as she talks with Rick Courtney about the world of support animals. Rick Courtney is a special needs and elder law attorney and parent of a special needs daughter and shares his experience and knowledge in owning and working with several types of support dogs. What is the difference between a service, therapy, or emot...
Apr 07, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 143
It is tax time! Annette Hines , host of Parenting Impossible-The Special Needs Survival Podcast and her favorite guest, law partner and husband, Mark Worthington tackle the four top questions people ask about tax preparation and tax reporting. Can I claim my adult child as a dependent? If I charge my adult child room and board when they are living with me, is that taxable income to me? And how does this impact their Supplemental Security Income (SSI)? Taxation of special needs trust and SECURE A...
Mar 31, 2022•59 min•Ep. 142
In the last three episodes of Parenting Impossible, The Special Needs Survival Podcast , Annette Hines has been telling her story to explain how her journey brought her into the disability community as a mother, caregiver, advocate, and attorney. Now we are going to explore with the help of Shari Foos how stories can provide us with a real human connection. Shari Foos is a therapist, relationship specialist, adjunct professor, and creator of The Narrative Method . The Narrative Method is an awar...
Mar 23, 2022•44 min•Ep. 141
In the last episode of Annette Hines's three-part series of Telling Her Story, Annette talks about the relationships in her life. Learn all about Annette’s life story from finishing college to the present. It is all about the relationships and how they have carried her through the turmoil and challenges of her life. If you’d like to learn even more about Annette, check out her personal memoir, Butterflies and Second Chances: A Mom’s Memoir of Love and Loss available in paperback. Married to her ...
Mar 17, 2022•30 min•Ep. 140
In the second of a three-part series, Telling Her Story with Annette Hines , Annette shares her trials and tribulations of going back to work while continuing to be a caregiver for Elizabeth and Caroline. As many women head back into the workforce after being a caregiver at home, the obstacles can be difficult to overcome especially when you have a special needs child. Elizabeth required round-the-clock care and with very limited care options to choose from, having work flexibility and family su...
Mar 10, 2022•40 min•Ep. 139
Telling your story, sharing your story with others is a good way to get your thoughts and feelings out, connect with those with similar experiences, and be truly seen. Annette Hines , host of Parenting Impossible takes this opportunity to share her story with new listeners and reconnect with her dedicated Parenting Impossible fans. With one in five peopled impacted by a condition that is disabling whether physically, intellectually, developmentally there are so many of us who can relate. Annette...
Mar 03, 2022•27 min•Ep. 138
With record levels of unemployment and underemployment in our disability community how do we find ways to create personal achievement? Our guest, Breon Thomas shares with us his incredible neurodiverse life story of creating his own businesses, Seehim Enterprise (See stands for service, engage and encourage) and Cargo Vanpreneur . With his business’s growth, Breon is sharing his experience and knowledge with others in disability community on how to be their own entrepreneur. And if that were not...
Feb 24, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 137
Please join us for our last episode in our Spotlight Series: A Focus on Education. Annette Hines speaks with Cat Weir, Program Director and Debra Hart, Co-Principal Investigator of Think College, a part of ICI, Institute for Community Inclusion. Learning does not stop at age 18 for those with intellectual disabilities and offering those who have entered adulthood an opportunity for growth in over one hundred college programs is what Think College is all about. With the only national database on ...
Feb 17, 2022•48 min•Ep. 136
This week Annette interviews returning guest, original Parenting Impossible producer, mentor, popular author, and coach on ADD, Dave Greenwood, to talk about his second book, Burnout. As the pandemic has raged on people have become tired, weary, less patient with one another. When we start despising our life, and the people in it and cynicism sets in we feel disconnected from the people in our life. Is this a sign of burnout? Join us as Annette Hines and Dave Greenwood tackle this very timely su...
Feb 10, 2022•52 min•Ep. 135
Please join us for the second episode of our Spotlight Series: A Focus on Education. We are excited to bring you Alexandra Ullrich, the Program Manager and Co-Creator of the Easter Seals program, College Navigator . Alexandra helped start this program in 2018, and now it has over one hundred clients. The College Navigator provides individualized services in person and virtually to college students with disabilities supporting their goals, strengths, and needs and not necessarily in their subject...
Feb 03, 2022•37 min•Ep. 134
We are thrilled to bring you our first episode in our spotlight series A Focus on Education with an interview with the dynamic advocate and supporter, Mary Sokolowski, Ph.D. from College Internship Program (CIP). The College Internship Program (CIP) is a private young adult transition program for individuals 18-26 with autism, ADHD, and other learning differences offering comprehensive and specialized services. Mary helps us kick off this series with a conversation about what people with learnin...
Jan 26, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 133
This week Annette Hines , host of Parenting Impossible , explores in her introduction a new year, a new look at where we are in our finances, financial planning, and support services in the world of Covid as we move into year three of the pandemic. The guest interview is a re-broadcast of one of our favorite episodes! Leah Moore , an author, mom, teacher, and advocate raising awareness for cri du chat. Leah’s story of raising three kids, one with Cri du chat syndrome is full of relatable stories...
Jan 12, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 132
In this week’s podcast, Annette speaks with Attorney Tracey Ingle and speaker, coach, and Psychologist Dr. Sarah Reiff-Hekking about setting goals for yourself for the new year. Tracey is the founder of Ingle Law and works with clients to create their estate plans and plan out the future. Sarah is the founder of True Focus Coaching Inc and works with clients to transform their lives and businesses. Setting goals can feel overwhelming for some people. Some may not be able to visualize their goals...
Dec 29, 2021•49 min•Ep. 131
We are now at that time of the year when everyone should sit down and review their current special needs plan. Time to make sure your planning is correct, in good shape and is planned out for what is best for your family. This is one of Annette’s favorite podcasts to do and it has become an annual episode to help listeners create checklists to go over their own family’s plans. And what if you don’t already have a special needs plan? Well, this is the best time then to start getting things organi...
Dec 15, 2021•28 min
As the year winds to an end, we begin to think about the new year and how prepared are we are for the future. What planning will we need to do, what will we need to change, what worked well, what didn’t work well. For special needs families, the planning can sometimes be a little more challenging when it may include legal decision making regarding guardianship. In this podcast episode, Annette goes over some of the different types of guardianships (or conservatorships) there are and other import...
Dec 01, 2021•43 min•Ep. 129
The holiday season can be a stressful time if you have lost a child or a loved one. As we have seen over the past 2 years now, it can be stressful also when our loved ones are still with us but due to the pandemic and closures and rule changes, we may be separated and not have access to see them or be with them. In this podcast episode, Annette gives us her tips on how to thrive this holiday season and how to survive the holiday with both sorrow and joy in your heart. Annette begins by saying ho...
Nov 17, 2021•34 min•Ep. 128
The end of a year tends to have people thinking about what they should do to plan for the new year and what changes they may need or want to make. While fitness and health goals are generally always on that list, so is financial planning for the future. Financial planning in general can seem to be a daunting task but it becomes a bit more challenging for special needs families and planning for your disabled child’s future. On this week’s podcast episode, Annette speaks with James “Jim” Grace, th...
Nov 04, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 127
Caregivers are often the unseen and overlooked part of special needs care. In this podcast episode, Annette speaks with Jessica Ronne , an author, caregiver advocate, and mom of 8, about caregiver support, her caregiver nonprofit The Lucas Project , her blog “ Jess + the Mess ” and her 2 books “ Sunlight Burning at Midnight ” and “ Blended with Grit and Grace .” Jess’ family story is one of heart break that leads to happiness. Her second child Lucas was born profoundly disabled due to a stroke i...
Oct 20, 2021•51 min•Ep. 126
New child support guidelines recently became effective in Massachusetts on October 4, 2021. We felt it would be a good time to bring back a podcast Annette did last year with husband Mark Worthington in which both attorneys discuss divorce when you have a special needs child. While a majority of these new child support changes affect standard family law matters relating to divorce, a few will affect special needs planning. These changes mainly are regarding Social Security and how these benefits...
Oct 06, 2021•59 min•Ep. 125
