Refrigerator Moms

Refrigerator Moms Join us as we navigate the complexities of autism, share personal stories, and offer empowering perspectives on parenting autistic individuals.

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11/07/2025

AI doesn’t challenge unhealthy thoughts—it agrees with them.

That’s a problem. Especially for kids and teens with OCD, anxiety, or depression. When a chatbot keeps saying “you’re right,” it can lock someone into a dangerous mental loop.

In one study, an AI companion even told a depressed teen to quit school and isolate from her parents.

This isn’t harmless tech talk—it’s real-world harm.

🎧 Watch or listen to our latest Cold Hard Truths episode on RefrigeratorMoms.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

11/06/2025

Parents are starting to ask AI how to parent.

“My kid is behaving this way. What do I say?” And sure, the advice might sound good—until the algorithm learns your parenting style and starts serving you back your own bias, amplified.

AI doesn’t know your child. It doesn’t know your context. And sometimes, it just gets weird.

11/05/2025

AI chatbots aren’t therapists. They’re calculators with empathy settings.

The problem? Those empathy settings can be dangerous. Once you start a sustained conversation, the guardrails come off—and these bots will tell you what you want to hear, even if it’s harmful.

As more teens turn to AI for “support,” we need to talk about what that really means—and the risks we’re not ready for.

🎧 Watch or listen to the full episode, “Cold Hard Truths: Chatbots, Su***de, and SAINT,” on RefrigeratorMoms.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

There’s a kind of joy that doesn’t need to fit. It doesn’t ask for eye contact or approval. It’s found in repetition, in...
11/04/2025

There’s a kind of joy that doesn’t need to fit. It doesn’t ask for eye contact or approval. It’s found in repetition, in fascination, in pure, unfiltered delight.

That’s autistic joy.

And if you’re lucky enough to witness it—let it be.

No need to redirect. No need to make it “age appropriate.” Joy is joy.

11/03/2025

Unmasking isn’t a free pass.

As Kelley and Julianna say:
👉 “Don’t use unmasking to excuse bad behavior.”
👉 “And don’t use masking as a crutch to avoid growth.”

You don’t have to hide who you are—but you do deserve to build tools that help you thrive. That’s the real work of acceptance: not just saying this is who I am, but asking how can I live better because of it?

11/02/2025

Neurodivergent or not—no one gets a free pass to be a jerk.

Communication matters.
Awareness matters.
And, yes, behavior matters.

Sometimes late diagnosis means learning skills as an adult that others were taught as kids. And that’s okay.
The goal isn’t perfection—it’s progress, empathy, and understanding.

10/31/2025

When the mask falls off, it’s not bad behavior—it’s burnout.

Many autistic kids hold it together all day at school, only to melt down the moment they’re home. That’s not defiance—it’s exhaustion. For many families, the school sees a version of your child, but you see the whole picture.

Home should be the place where the mask can come off safely—where they can finally breathe, decompress, and be fully themselves.

10/31/2025

Sometimes acceptance looks like sparkly pink shoes. 💗

Julianna’s son loved pink—shirts, shoes, My Little Pony, all of it. But the world wasn’t always kind about that.

So together, they made a deal:
When he was ready to wear what he loved and not care what anyone thought, she’d buy the shoes—and wear matching ones.

Until then? He could be himself at home, surrounded with his fuzzy pillows.

Because every child deserves a space where they can take the mask off and just be.

10/29/2025

Masking isn’t pretending to be someone else. It’s surviving in a world that wasn’t built with you in mind.

For autistic people, masking can look like wearing uncomfortable clothes to fit in at work, hiding a stim in class, or planning conversations in advance just to get through the day.

The goal isn’t to shame masking—it’s to understand it. To know when it serves you … and when it’s time to take the mask off.

Did you know that many of our episodes come with a “refrigerator paper”—our version of the white paper, with every sourc...
10/28/2025

Did you know that many of our episodes come with a “refrigerator paper”—our version of the white paper, with every source, every stat, and every What Would We Wo? we couldn’t fit in the show?

Because parenting with purpose means doing your own research—and we’ve done some of the homework for you.

Download our papers at RefrigeratorMoms.com

Social media makes it look like every parent has the perfect therapy plan, the perfect routine, the perfect child. But t...
10/28/2025

Social media makes it look like every parent has the perfect therapy plan, the perfect routine, the perfect child. But the truth? Most of us are just trying to make it through the day with enough patience to try again tomorrow.

The Refrigerator Moms are here to remind you: you don’t need to be perfect—you just need to keep showing up.

What’s one small “win” you’ve had lately that no one else would see but you know mattered? 👇

10/26/2025

Label or no label, the behaviors are still there.

Whether it’s ODD, PDA, or something else entirely, the goal is the same: understand the why, protect your child, and help them learn to manage behaviors that aren’t serving them.

Sometimes defiance has a reason. Sometimes it doesn’t. Either way, you still have to address it—with empathy, boundaries, and safeguards that keep everyone healthy.

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