For the second time in Season 4, a childhood friend of Jill Devine’s was a part of Two Kids and A Career. The first childhood friend was Gina Schuster. In Episode 45, Gina talked about losing her husband to suicide.
Mackenzie Siders, Gina, and Jill are all childhood friends and when Mackenzie heard Gina’s episode, it prompted her to email Jill. Mackenzie has a seven-year-old son, Charlie, who suffers from autism. April is Autism Awareness Month and she asked Jill if she could come on the podcast in April to talk about autism. Jill said no because she wanted Mackenzie to be on the podcast sooner than later and Mackenzie accepted the invite, but she will be back in April to talk about Autism Awareness Month.
Jill knew the conversation with Mackenzie would be full of laughs despite the serious subject matter because Mackenzie keeps it real. The bio she uses is the best way for Jill to describe Mackenzie to anyone who doesn’t know her:
Mackenzie is a SAHM to five beautiful, hysterical, annoying-as-f#@k-sometimes kids. She worked so super hard in her twenties to earn an MBA only to retire and become her kids’ bitch. Now she spends her days dashing into the fray and taking power naps. You can catch her tossing quarters into her swear jar on her blog Mommy Needs A Swear Jar and on Facebook. She is confused by Twitter.
The episode was filled with lots of laugher, but also filled with tons of knowledge and advice.
Whether you have an autistic child or not, you should check out this article Mackenzie wrote after Charlie was given the official diagnosis.
Here are some resources suggested by Mackenzie:
*Missouri Department of Mental Health for Developmental Disabilities
*Missouri Department of Mental Health: Office of Autism Services
*Community Living In-Home Respite
*Developmental Disabilities Resource Board
*Mercy Kids Intensive Early Intervention Program
*Speech Language Learning Systems
*Orton Gillingham for the treatment of Dyslexia
*Developing Minds Therapy Services
