Let's talk Parental Responsibility

When parenting moves from playdates to NDIS plans...

Nothing truly prepares you for parenthood.

Parenting is a flex for everyone. Even that Insta parent with the perfectly organic home aesthetic and children in matching linen jumpsuits has moments when they shriek at their children don’t pass the vibe check.

And when your child is also disabled, living with constant challenges with daily living, discrimination (depressingly common), accessibility barriers here, there and everywhere along with very high support needs… you’re in the trenches. Daily. Plain and simple.

Advances in genetics means that we have more answers, but they only raise more questions that specialists can’t answer. Every child’s disability affects them differently, which means we parents are constantly pivoting, shape-shifting into whatever our child needs us to be. Even the so-called experts are out of their depth half the time.

So if you’ve ever had the dreaded ‘Parental Responsibility’ line thrown at you by the NDIS, I get it—it feels triggering, invalidating, and downright dismissive.

The truth is, we have to understand the system we’re dealing with before we can make it work for our child and family.

So here’s comprehensive breakdown to help all parents understand what the legislation actually says…. Hopefully this will save you from a breakdown instead!

As always this is not legal advice…

I’m linking you to information from the source - The NDIS, legislation, operational guidelines and other relevant sources so that you can understand and use them to your best advantage.

Parental Responsibility: What does the NDIS Act say?

The NDIS Act does not have a definition of what is considered ‘parental responsibility’. So it doesn’t tell us what parents should do in their day to day duty of ‘being mum or dad’.

The Act does state that “parental responsibility” has the meaning given by section 75”.