A weekly conversation about the messy, meaningful reality of caregiving, told with humor, honesty, and the occasional slightly ridiculous life metaphor. Come laugh, reflect, and leave with a little more grace for yourself and the chaos we’re all navigating.
Shannon opens the episode with friendly greetings, introduces herself and her professional roles, and explains she's broadcasting from San Diego rather than her usual Minnesota base.
She talks candidly about the difficulty of attending a conference while her high-support autistic teen is at home, explaining the emotional strain and how she tries to balance worry by preparing supports and sending positive energy until she returns.
Shannon encourages caregivers to give themselves credit for the groundwork they’ve done, outlines steps for training and trusting backup caregivers, and reassures listeners that building reliable supports is possible even if it takes time.
She notes Autism Acceptance Month and a conference project assembling sensory kits for donation, then takes a lighthearted moment to describe the San Diego scenery — including aggressive seagulls and the water — as she steps away for lunch.
Shannon reminds viewers about the Saturday session, invites feedback and interaction in the chat and Cadre Sphere community, thanks viewers for joining, and signs off with well wishes.
Hey everybody, happy Thursday to you if you're watching on a Thursday. If not, happy whatever day it is that you're watching in the future. I presume it's not the past because I don't think we figured that out yet. I'm Ms. Shannon, everybody. A variety of word related things like a comedian, corporate speaker, voice actor and event emcee and a benefit auctioneer by trade. Hello, a triple B. Good to see you in the chat. I was just saying doing a little introduction so you know a little bit more about Ms.
Shannon. I said I was a variety of word related things by trade, but I am also the proud parent of an adorable 18 year old kiddo who happens to be high supports on the autism spectrum. So I'm happy to join you on this Thursday. edition of Comedy Through the Chaos. I am on a location. I am out of town. I normally hub out of the great state of Minnesota, which is often where I am checking in with you on these Thursday and on my additional Saturday Comedy Through the Chaos. But right now I'm in sunny San Diego, California, part of a conference with my favorite corporate client, the National Co-op Grocer.
So I'm here. So there is actually water over there. look how scenic that is absolutely beautiful beautiful day out here so I came outside to get some organic vitamin D and to check in with y'all and I think that you know a lot of caregivers can maybe appreciate my perspective of what I have going on right now because I'm very happy to be you know on location and and do what I'm doing here with this client I'm glad I had this chance to come to San Diego but it's been stressful, not because of my work, but because of the person that I care for and care about my kiddo.
So he is at home right now. His caregivers that are my backup caregivers, which are my sister. And his para that work with him are of course doing their best and checking in with him and caring for him while I'm out of town. But it really is, it's hard on him and it's hard on them when I'm gone for this long a period of time. And it then is in turn hard on me because I have to spend a lot of time trying to balance my adrenals and doing what I can to support them. while I am miles and miles and miles away.
And that's always the most difficult part for me is doing what I can to provide the resources that they need to do well, to put that energy into the universe that they will do well while I'm out, but also understanding that I'm doing my best to not stress them out too much, you know, on how things are going. So this trip is a little longer than I would normally would like to take and to be away. But that was slightly out of my control. And there are so many things I think that we do have to handle as caregivers that do end up being out of our control.
And then we have to sit there and figure out, well, how do we do the best that we can and then release the rest to the universe. So that is where I'm at. So yes, I would have liked it if I could have been home this evening and gotten a flight back out. That was not the case. So what I'm going to do is put as much positivity and positive vibes into the universe as well as I can. and hope that they will be all right until I get back tomorrow. And so that's what I'm working on and trying not to stress myself out, not to worry, and then also not to put that worry, that energy into the concept of worrying while I'm here.
So I do encourage all of us as caregivers give ourselves credit for the groundwork that we lay so that they are able to thrive in situations where we can't immediately step in. I know from example how difficult that is, but I also have to give myself a little bit of grace on you have done the work and the pre-work so that things get better about this. so that things are smoother for them when we're gone and that there's ways so that even though it's not ideal that they have the tools and the resources that they need to be able to get through until I get home and that will be tomorrow and I'm just doing hashtag positivity.
So give yourself some of that. Maybe you are currently going through something kind of tight like that where you're like, you know, I'm doing my best as a caregiver, but I'm just for a variety of reasons have to step away. Maybe it's work related. Maybe it's that you just as a caregiver are trying to make sure that you don't burn out as well. So you need to take a little bit of time away and have your backup supports end up doing some things for you. So do what you can to set up things as well as possible and then Trust your team, trust the process.
If you are working and building a team, you can always talk to us 'cause that was a process and a way that I even did what we'll call training so that they did have more of a skillset to be able to handle complicated situations when I'm not available to be there to step in. And I know that that's a lot of work and sometimes you're like, Oh my gosh, I'm never gonna get there. Trust me, you can get there. It may not be the easiest road, but you can get there. So work on that. Let us know if there's any way that we can support you as you do that.
I also wanna say, and there are just other little things in the universe to remind us, Happy Autism Acceptance Month as we are continuing to navigate through that. One of the wonderful things about the organization that I work with is that they're very cognizant of a variety of those different things. So I had the wonderful bonus to find out that today that as part of the conference, They are putting together sensory kits that are going to be donated to the Autism Society of San Diego. And so I got to go and do some of that and put some of those gifts together and I know that they'll be supporting some kiddos just like mine here in the San Diego area.
So I am going to go and find some lunch before I have to get back into conference. I'm checking out something that we have here in San Diego that we don't have that much of in Minnesota, which seem to be very aggressive seagulls. Like man, these seagulls, they'll come take the cookie right out your face. Like right, you don't eat it quick 'cause they're coming for you. So I'm gonna go check them out. I'm gonna go look at the water 'cause they told us don't touch the water 'cause they're like, too high levels of bacteria in the water.
I wasn't going to touch the water anyway, but now I go, no. So it is beautiful to look at and that is what I'm going to do. I'm going to do over there, take a few deep breaths, enjoy the water. enjoy my time that I'm here communicating with these wonderful people that are here trying to learn some great things that will go back and help them resource themselves to their community as well and I'm happy to be part of your community. m. central for an additional version of Comedy Through the Chaos.
In the meantime, feel free to let us know in the chat if there's additional ways that we can support you. Make sure you hang out with the other people that are here in the Cadre Sphere. similar to me. Let them know what it is that we need to do to provide the right kind of information and resources that would be valuable to you. We always want your feedback. We always want your interactions. We're always happy to see what it is that you're working on and how we can continue to build this community and continue to support you.
So always let me know. So I do hope that the day is treating you well. If not, shame on it, not shame on you. I'll see you on Saturday everybody. Be well.
