The nightmare of shopping | Helen Stuart

2025-05-14

This week, Mark dives into the chaotic, absurd and quite often traumatic world of shopping with neurodivergent children. If you’ve ever emerged from a supermarket having to impulse buy paracetamol just to get you through the shop, then this one’s for you. Joining Mark is the brilliant Helen Stuart – a mum of six (four of her own and two step-children - all diagnosed or suspected neurodivergent), home educator, and co-founder of Thrive Together Training. Between them, they dissect the minefield of supermarkets, the unpredictability of meltdowns triggered by autom...

Joining Mark is the brilliant Helen Stuart – a mum of six (four of her own and two step-children - all diagnosed or suspected neurodivergent), home educator, and co-founder of Thrive Together Training. Between them, they dissect the minefield of supermarkets, the unpredictability of meltdowns triggered by automatic doors, sensory overwhelm, the trauma of shopping for clothes, rage waiting, and the unholy panic when you realise the supermarket has unexpectedly moved everything around.

This is a laugh-out-loud, painfully relatable episode for anyone who has ever had lofty ambitions to do a quick “top up shop”, before ending up having to negotiate UN-level peace deals with your child in the frozen food aisle.

STUFF WE COVER:

00:00 – Intro & Listener Feedback
02:00 – Meet the Guest: Helen Stuart
06:00 – Topic of the Week: Shopping
13:00 – Why Supermarkets Are Sensory Torture
19:00 – The Emotional Toll of Trolleys and Comments
25:00 – PDA Autonomy, Meltdowns, and the Elsa Cup Incident
33:00 – Supermarket Sweep, PDA-Style
39:00 – Self-Checkouts vs Human Interaction
45:00 – Clothing & Footwear Battles
52:00 – Lush, Libraries and Return Rage
59:00 – When Book Tokens Become a Poisoned Chalice
1:04:00 – The Positives (Yes, Really!)
1:10:00 – Neurodiversity Champions
1:16:00 – Tiny Epic Wins
1:20:00 – What the Flip? Moments
1:23:00 – Wrap-Up & Thrive Together Info