It's the Simple Show. You've got episode 56.

Hey, I'm Tish Oxen Rider, and on The Simple Show, we talk about books, travel, and life at home.

Although I have three co-hosts, every now and then, I also have a special guest, and that's what this episode is.

I'm talking with my friend and parenting mentor, Sally Clarkson, who's a writer and speaker and a mom to four adult kids.

She and one of her sons, Nathan, have just released a new book called Different, the story of an outside the box kid and the mom who loved him.

That's what our chat is about today, raising kids who don't fit what's, quote, normal, how it shapes who we are as

parents, and why it's so important to let kids be how they're made. Sally's a parent who made

it to the other side and has well-adjusted, thriving adult children, so I look to her as someone

just teeming with wisdom, and luckily for us, she shares it with us

in her writing. So I hope you enjoy this chat with Sally on parenting outside the box kids.

And I'll be back in the end to fill in any gaps.

Hi, Sally. Thank you so much for talking. I'm really, really glad to have you on the podcast

because of this book you've got come out called Different. You and I have talked a little bit, but not a lot about how I have a kid who's different too. So I want you to start off telling me a little bit about how this book even came to be. What do you mean by Different? Okay. Well, I'm so glad to be with you, Tish. You're just one of my favorite people.

Just wish I saw you more often.

You know, this is a book I would never have written because I've had somewhat of a public

life to people who know me.

And I always thought, I want to protect my children and let them have time to tell their

own stories.

But I have four children and actually three of them have some issues.

But my sweet son Nathan, my third child, came out really different.

It's going to be hard not to use different every other word in this podcast.

But he was perfect.

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