A six week, facilitated online programme for parents in neurodivergent families who want everyday life to feel calmer, more workable, and less like a constant battle.

If your home is full of reminding, negotiating, rushing, and repair work, you are not alone. Many families reach a point where it is not one “issue”. It is the whole week. Mornings, getting out the door, transitions, after school, meals, sibling dynamics, screen time, bedtime, and the emotional load of keeping everything steady.

The Quirky Parenting Project helps you change how your household system is organised, so daily life is not held together by willpower, escalation, or constant prompting. We focus on the conditions that shape family life, including routines, roles, expectations, sensory and emotional load, and the way everyone’s needs are communicated and met.

This programme is structured and contained, with enough flexibility to fit real families. You will leave with practical, family specific strategies you can use at home.

What we work on

We look at how your home environment and routines are currently set up, and what they are unintentionally demanding from each person.

We build a clearer picture of differences in capacity, stress responses, and support needs across the family, without blame or pathologising.

We reduce repetitive instructional talk and increase language that supports safety, cooperation, and warmth.

We design household rhythms that hold under stress, especially around the hardest parts of the day.

We rebalance roles and load across the household, so one parent is not carrying the emotional and practical weight alone.

Examples and applications span early primary through to teen years, and you will apply the framework directly to your own household.

Who this is for

TQPP is for you if you feel stuck in repeating cycles of conflict, negotiation, disconnection, or shutdown, and daily life is being held together by constant prompting and repair.

It fits particularly well if you are parenting a child from early primary through high school, roughly ages 5 to 17. The programme adapts to your family’s stage, whether the pressure points are mornings and bedtime, or the increased load that comes with tween and teen years.

It is for parents who want neurodiversity affirming, non blaming support, and who want practical change, not more theory.

What’s included

Six weekly online group sessions, around 2 hours each. The sessions build sequentially so changes can land gradually and sustainably.

Two individual sessions with Justine are included.

The first is before the programme begins, to understand what matters most in your family and to clarify goals.

The second is two weeks after the programme ends, as a supportive check in to notice what is working and strengthen the changes as you keep applying them.

Delivery is online via Zoom. Cameras are optional. You can participate at your pace.

Please note: This is not therapy. It is family work grounded in family systems thinking and a neurodivergent lens, designed to support everyday life and real world functioning.

How the programme unfolds (6 weeks)

Week 1: Making sense of what’s happening
Week 2: Supporting capacity and cooperation
Week 3: Shifting from directing to relating
Week 4: Systems that hold under stress
Week 5: Rebalancing roles across the household
Week 6: Carrying changes forward

About the facilitator

Justine Demaine is a senior family therapist with more than 25 years’ experience supporting neurodivergent families, parents, and teens across Australia and internationally. Her approach combines family systems therapy, neurodiversity affirming practice, and environmental change strategies, so families can function with less stress and more connection.