Chris Irvine is a Parenting Coach living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She helps parents navigate the enormous challenges in parenting preteens, teens, and young adults–neurodivergent or not–by helping them parent with more empathy for both themselves and their children. She helps parents approach their kids with curiosity rather than anger to create more connection, harmony and fun at home!
Chris has raised a daughter with autism and her younger, neurotypical brother. Parenting her kids presented challenges beyond anything she ever could have imagined!
She first conceived of this bog in 2015 as a way of both processing and sharing all the raw emotions, failures, and victories involved in parenting the an autistic child, who was 15 at the time Chris began writing.
Since she wrote this blog, Chris has learned so much about parenting both of her children with more calm and curiosity. She has been trasnformed in so many ways as a parent and as a human! She’s still a work in progress, but she’s thrilled with the closeness she has with both of her kids and the mostly-peaceful life she has created at home. She hopes that by sharing her experiences, including her successes and failures and all of the emotions that went along with them, she can connect with other parents who are struggling.
Since writing this blog, Chris has divorced and now lives alone with her daughter, and a new and beautiful era in their lives has begun to unfold. S
The Year of Living Hopefully 
Chris, I had no idea you had a child with Aspergers. I am looking forward to reading your blog.
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I spent hours reading your blog after you posted the link on Next Door. I have been increasingly living in a world of isolation with my son with SPD (and his much younger sister who is “normal”). His entering puberty and the ramp up of extreme emotional behavior has been surprising and exhausting – I thought I was sort of managing and balancing it all but now I am back to reevaluating and adjusting. Lovely to read about you and wondering if you have any local support groups to recommend. A fellow Mill Valley resident sending out a big thank you. Please keep writing. I love your style of writing and the content.
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Liz, THank you so much for your comment. I’m so gratified whenever I reach somebody in a similar situation. Unfortunately I do not have any groups to recommend. What has really helped me so much has been my amazing therapist. I go back and forth in a single day, sometimes thinking things are good and easy and then feeling fed up and exhausted. It’s just not an easy road. If I come across any groups or resources for you, I will be sure to reach out. We all need all the help we can get!
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Also you probably already know this, but Matrix in Novato can be a good resource for all kinds of assistance.
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