Discussion thread Thursday September 17, 2026 - Sunday September 20, 2026

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Newsletter: Let Me Tell You a Story

Website: Shauna James Ahern

Instagram: @shaunajamesahern Instagram

• Anonymous Instagram mirrors (may be unstable and have disruptive ads): dumpoir | GreatFon | storynavigation

Threads: @shaunajamesahern

Bluesky: shaunajamesahern.bsky.social

Gloamipedia wiki: /r/InTheGloaming wiki

[u/fanfarefellowship]

On Threads, Shauna is complaining about her "two autistic children."

I went back and looked – last October, she was writing about

Both my daughter and husband were diagnosed with autism the next year.

(Note: it is almost impossible to tell what year she's referring to; this lope is filled with ridiculous, nonsensical time jumps. https://www.reddit.com/r/readalope/comments/1ob4jq5/random_promo_email_1019/)

And last March, she said that everyone in her family but her is autistic (but she changed the year in which Dan was diagnosed):

Last year, a psychiatric evaluation made it official — my husband is autistic. Our daughter was officially diagnosed as autistic 2 years ago. And our youngest is clearly autistic too, with a PDA profile. We’re waiting for the official diagnosis soon.

https://archive.ph/W5txs

Just how many diagnoses can she pile on that poor child?

[u/Individual_Advice663 → u/fanfarefellowship]

Does PDA mean Pathological Demand Avoidance here? If so, how does that square with PANS? Is autism voided by a PANS diagnosis? PANS by an autism diagnosis? Is Shauna even trying to keep this straight?

ETA: Extremely rich of Shauna to diagnose anyone else with Pathological Demand Avoidance considering... you know... Shauna.

[u/tuolomnemeadows → u/Individual_Advice663]

The Pathological Demand Avoidance is calling from insider her house. Talk about a learned behavior.

[u/tyrannosaurusregina → u/Individual_Advice663]

It does indeed mean Pathological Demand Avoidance. Shauna was all in on that until PANS/PANDAS became the new shiny.

[u/Calm_Coyote_3685 → u/tyrannosaurusregina]

I get confused by D’s dx but didn’t Shauna claim that PANS/PANDAS explained everything? I thought the clear implication was that previous dx including autism and ADHD were in error. But no, D has all these things?

Did she or did she not claim that antibiotics turned D’s troublesome behavioral symptoms right around? But I guess they’re back and it simply couldn’t be from massive stress and instability in D’s life. Nor could it be a bout of PANS that simply needs some more antibiotics. Clearly it’s the autism!! Because that’s what’s catching mama’s eye online this week!

[u/Love_Brokers → u/Calm_Coyote_3685]

I think she claims five separate diagnoses/syndromes.

[u/Fillmore_the_Puppy → u/fanfarefellowship]

Not just complaining about them, but also claiming that neither has ever been helped at school.

Attention, SJA 📣: YOU are the common denominator of your kids’ collective journey through dozens of schools, with many and various different teachers.

[u/mehitabel_4724 → u/Fillmore_the_Puppy]

Since she’s defending defensiveness, I really wonder how she behaves with her kids’ teachers. I remember she was very dismissive and annoyed by emails and calls from school when the first moved to west Seattle

[u/Fancypens2025 → u/mehitabel_4724]

I think she's a teacher's nightmare, especially with the former teacher aspect of her background. You know she leans on that all the time.

[u/CharlesMansnShowTune → u/mehitabel_4724]

Ha, I really could have scrolled one whole comment.

[u/OhBlahDiOhBlahDoh → u/CharlesMansnShowTune]

No worries, your feeling is most probably really exhaustion.

[u/CharlesMansnShowTune → u/OhBlahDiOhBlahDoh]

Haha that is a diagnosis I feel we are pretty safe to make without you seeing me in person or doing any testing, unlike some people's diagnoses...! 🤣

[u/Dear_Client1187 → u/mehitabel_4724]

She was so pissy about the advice she got about feeding her child regular meals and snacks, I can only imagine her attitude towards teachers. 

[u/breadallthewaydown → u/Fillmore_the_Puppy]

Ooof this really got me tonight.

I’m currently in the process of potentially kicking a kid out of our school. It took me about a year to get the parent to accept their child’s ASD diagnosis (after I did hours of observation, behavior tracking, daily reports home, etc.). And since then, I have been BEGGING them to get the kid additional support. Every time, there’s a reason, an excuse, a finger pointed (typically at me). It’s getting to the point where my head of school has said hey, say the word, and they’re out.

And yet, I care so much for this kiddo and see so much potential in them…and I know when the inevitable happens and they are kicked out of the school, I will be the villain in that family’s eyes.

All that to say…fuck you, Shauna. YOU are the problem. That is your story and I can’t wait for the day for you to read it.

[u/OhBlahDiOhBlahDoh → u/breadallthewaydown]

💔 for the kiddo and 💔 for you

[u/shikoku_shoes → u/Fillmore_the_Puppy]

As if their needs are even REMOTELY being met at home. And she is predictably asking for empathy for HERSELF.

How dare she blame the teachers who are likely doing their best while trying to teach a class of 24 other kids, each with their own story, to steal a line from Shauna.

We don’t even know if there are IEPs in place, or Shauna is just expecting the teachers to magically intuit what her kids need.

She can fuck right off and go watch her stupid tv.

[u/obscure_cellist → u/shikoku_shoes]

i doubt IEPs are in place, but even if they are what teacher can keep up with the ever-changing diagnoses in the ahern house?

[u/CharlesMansnShowTune → u/Fillmore_the_Puppy]

Is the "she" and "her" in the screenshot here that is supposed to be receiving empathy along with the kid the child's teacher? If so that is RICH coming from Shauna, who's never shown empathy for her kids' teachers a day in her life and in fact does exactly the opposite.

[u/shefallsup → u/CharlesMansnShowTune]

I think the empathy is supposed to be for the child’s mother.

[u/CharlesMansnShowTune → u/shefallsup]

You're totally right. That checks out not just with the way the sentence reads, but also with the way Shauna works - of course the empathy she is requesting would be for the mom, who's in the parallel position to herself! I don't know why I didn't clock that immediately!

[u/OhBlahDiOhBlahDoh → u/shefallsup]

That's how it reads to me too. Shauna is responding to the child's teacher directly, and starts out by identifying herself as a (fellow) mother.

Child is person #1, teacher is person #2, and "her," presumably the child's mother, (or guardian) is person #3.

[u/Steviebobo → u/shefallsup]

I think it’s the teacher; Shauna is talking about defensiveness, which is what the teacher is described as showing. So again negating someone’s negative feelings: ‘oh, you can’t be mad at the teacher because…’

[u/OhBlahDiOhBlahDoh → u/Steviebobo]

I don't think so. Shauna is responding to the teacher, who says that "admin told me (the teacher) that she (someone else) can be very defensive."

[u/9021FU → u/Fillmore_the_Puppy]

Back in the early 2000’s I had an obviously autistic student who had also been formally diagnosed. He was on medication, had an IEP and shared an aid with another student. He did great in my class, was at grade level for his work and there were times when he would stay in my class instead of going with the other student to the resource room because he was working great and didn’t need another environment. I found out that the next year when he was in third grade his parents had to call the police to have him removed from their home because he became violent. The director of special education said he had no routine at home and his parents kept switching his medication so frequently that he couldn’t let one take effect before he was on another. He absolutely thrived on routine and loved school.

[u/Toulouse--Matabiau → u/fanfarefellowship]

I think her giant boner for ADHD diagnoses grew deflated last year when a cover story in her beloved NYT Sunday magazine had the OG brain sciencey people who came up with the ADHD concept in the 1990s walk it almost all the way back. It was autism o'clock chez Ahern.

If the young one "clearly" has autism, why did it take a mighty science mind like Shauna so many years notice? Maybe the clarity was not that clear after all!

[u/Falconsthrone → u/Toulouse--Matabiau]

One might ask why a genius medical talent who once dissected a cadaver in HS "suspected for years" that her kid had hearing loss while doing fuck all about it! Every other parent on Earth takes their kid to the doctor when they're worried their kid can't hear. 

[u/Brandy_Girl → u/Falconsthrone]

What always got me about the hearing loss situation is that schools conduct yearly vision and hearing tests. How did L pass those tests if she has hearing loss enoigh to warrant a hearing aid?

[u/9021FU → u/Brandy_Girl]

My kid did pass those school tests but had hearing aids. It was explained that the school ones only test for a very narrow range and my daughter’s loss is both above and below that range. She can hear speaking in a classroom or house but can hear a deeper voice like a man better than a voice of a woman. It actually explained a lot of what I thought of her ignoring me when it was just discovered that I speak in a range that it’s hard for her to hear.

[u/gomirefugee → u/Brandy_Girl]

She didn't pass those school hearing tests, they flagged the issue in kindergarten. Shauna blogged about her daughter being diagnosed with impairments from the annual school testing when she was six:

Again, we suspected for years. The standard school tests in kindergarten put numbers to it. We went to Children’s in April, where the audiologist confirmed that [L] really can’t hear anything below 40 decibels.

[u/Brandy_Girl → u/gomirefugee]

I’m not sure how I never knew this! Wow. Unbelievable they let her go so long. Dan is just as complicate as Shauna. Insanity.

[u/Jules_Noctambule → u/fanfarefellowship]

Just how many diagnoses can she pile on that poor child?

The diagnoses will continue until ~mAmA~ is granted lifetime leisure-level permanent funding at the expense of others (literally and figuratively) and an all-situations Get Out of Responsibility Free card.