The lived experience of parenting while having a neurodivergent nervous system (e.g., ADHD, autism, AuDHD, dyslexia), often within systems designed for neurotypical functioning. ND motherhood frequently involves heightened cognitive load, sensory strain, masking, and executive function depletion

The constant, background mental labor required to track needs, schedules, emotions, logistics, and future planning for a family system. Maternal cognitive load is often invisible, unshared, and structurally underestimated, leading to chronic executive function strain.

Planning, remembering, anticipating, and emotionally managing tasks that are not externally recognized as “work” but require sustained executive functioning. For ND mothers, invisible executive labor is a primary driver of burnout and EF collapse.

A nervous system–based approach to executive function that accounts for caregiving demands, interrupted attention, emotional labor, and chronic load. Somatic EF for mothers prioritizes sustainability, co-regulation, and structural relief over optimization

The cumulative physiological cost of functioning beyond capacity over time. Nervous system debt accrues when rest, recovery, and regulation are deferred in order to meet caregiving or survival demands.

A state of sustained, low-level attentional fragmentation common in motherhood, especially for ND mothers. Chronic partial attention significantly reduces working memory and task initiation capacity.