The Diabetic Mammy Podcast

As this year draws to a close, this gentle episode invites you to pause before the countdown begins.Drawing on a Scottish New Year tradition of opening the back door to let the old year out, and the front door to welcome the new one in, Catherine reflects on what it truly means to live through another year with type 1 diabetes. The hard days survived. The quiet wins that often go unnoticed. The lessons learned about ourselves, our families, and diabetes itself.This episode offers space for reflection without judgement. There are no resolutions to set and no perfection to chase. Just an invitation to honour what you have carried, to recognise the resilience it has taken to get here, and to gently welcome the year ahead.Whether you are living with type 1 diabetes yourself or parenting a child with it, this episode is a calm companion as one year ends and another begins.A moment to breathe. A moment to reflect. And a reminder that you do not step into the new year alone.

In this Christmas week episode of The Diabetic Mammy Podcast, Catherine reflects on how to honour celebration while living with and parenting type 1 diabetes. Sparked by a simple comment, “Christmas must be a nightmare”, she gently challenges the idea that diabetes must dominate special days.This episode offers reassurance for anyone navigating their first festive season with type 1 diabetes, alongside validation for those further along the journey. Catherine introduces the idea of a safe minimum approach to Christmas Day, focusing on preparation, safety, and letting go of perfection in favour of presence and joy.Through lived experience, practical planning tips, and compassionate reframing, she explores the balance between diabetes care and connection. From adjusting expectations around numbers to embracing the concept of “time in happiness versus time in range”, this episode gives permission to let diabetes take a back seat, just for a day, without compromising safety.A gentle, grounding listen for parents, adults with type 1 diabetes, and anyone feeling the emotional weight of trying to do it all during the festive season. This episode invites grace, flexibility, and kindness towards yourself, reminding you that memories are made in the messy, joyful moments, not perfect blood sugar graphs.

In this reflective episode of The Diabetic Mammy Podcast, I explore life with type 1 diabetes through a triplex identity: living as a person with T1D, a healthcare professional, and a parent raising children with type 1 diabetes. These three perspectives shape how language, advice, and reassurance land in everyday life.We sit with familiar phrases often heard in diabetes care, such as “I don’t know,” instructional comments like “calm down” or “be careful,” and the well-intended but complex reassurance of “don’t worry.” Spoken with good intent, these words can comfort or quietly undermine confidence. Drawing on lived experience, clinical insight, and parenting, this episode invites more compassionate language, deeper self-trust, and permission to pause.A gentle listen for anyone living with, caring for, or supporting someone with type 1 diabetes. 

In this comforting episode of The Diabetic Mammy, we explore the emotional reality of living with a chronic condition through the lens of the Christine Miserandino's Spoon Theory (see link below) and my own gentle twist on it: the Spoons of Sugar Theory. Together we look at how type 1 diabetes quietly drains our daily energy, why so many of us wake up already short on spoons, and how this constant effort shapes our emotional wellbeing.We then move towards something softer. I share how pairing the hard diabetes tasks with small, intentional moments of sweetness can help prevent burnout, soothe the nervous system, and make diabetes care more sustainable.Whether you’re a parent of a child with type 1 diabetes or an adult managing your own condition, this episode offers compassion, understanding, and practical ideas for restoring balance on the days when the work feels heavy.Join me as we talk about energy, resilience, diabetes fatigue, and the importance of emotional sugar in a life lived abundantly with chronic illness. May this episode feel like a little exhale in a busy week.(More info about The Spoon Theory @ www.butyoudontlooksick.com )

In this week’s episode of The Diabetic Mammy, we explore what happens after we start noticing the language used around diabetes. Because once we tune in to our words, we can’t help but notice something else sitting quietly beneath them: stigma.I talk about the subtle, often invisible ways stigma has shaped how many of us live with diabetes – the hiding of injections, the quick tucking away of sensors, the apologising for alarms, and the belief that we shouldn’t be “seen” managing our condition. I share my own journey from discreetly checking numbers in toilet cubicles to openly, proudly creating a well-organised diabetes kit at home, shaped by my pharmacist’s training and years of living overseas. We look at how stigma shows up in clinics, in family life and in the words we hand down to our children. And, most importantly, we talk about how visibility builds confidence: how checking glucose at the table, wearing tech with pride and speaking kindly to ourselves can slowly, gently dismantle shame.This episode is an invitation to notice the quiet places where stigma still lives in our routines and to make one small shift towards being seen. Because visibility is not weakness - it’s strength, safety and self-respect.

In this episode, Catherine opens up a gentle but powerful conversation about the words we use in diabetes care, why they matter so deeply, and how they shape the way we see ourselves and our children. Inspired by the global #LanguageMatters movement championed by advocates like Renza Scibilia, the episode explores how everyday phrases can either uplift or undermine, connect or isolate.Catherine shares examples from clinic life, home life, and her own experiences as a pharmacist and a mammy living with type 1. She invites listeners to reflect on the tone and labels that often slip into conversations about diabetes and challenges us all to pause, listen, and choose words that support rather than shame.The episode also looks at how the language we use around our children becomes the language they use with themselves, and how tiny shifts in phrasing can model self-grace, resilience, and emotional literacy.Ultimately, this episode is an invitation to speak with more kindness, more accuracy, and more humanity. Because when it comes to diabetes, language isn’t neutral. It’s powerful. And it truly, genuinely matters.