A Mother’s Day Letter to a Mom of an ADHD Kiddo

Dear fellow ADHD warrior,

Is this not the motherhood you had envisioned?  Not the picture perfect life you aspired to?  When you first held your baby in your arms, I bet you couldn’t imagine the struggles you would face each day to just get your family out the door each morning.  As you celebrated their first step, you were totally clueless to the sideways glances you would get years down the road when they proceeded to bounce off the walls.

I am right there with you my friend.  This is not the team I signed up for either!!  When your child’s doctor broke the news that your precious peanut has ADHD your world shifted.  You would soon learn about all the obstacles your kid would have to face (or maybe you are still learning).  I’m still learning too.

I learned that the hyperactivity (while sometimes beyond annoying) isn’t the worst of it.  Having to dig through yet another gross pile of lost and found at school to find the misplaced coat, isn’t the worst of it.  Tracking down homework for the millionth time this week that never seems to make it to and from school, isn’t the worst it.  Yep, the worst thing is realizing your sweet innocent child can’t separate themselves from this disease.

They may call themselves stupid.  You might watch them struggle to make friends.  And you will definitely lose it more than just a few times trying to help them hold it all together.  But you’ve got this girlfriend!!  I know you do because I do too!!!

It is our job to teach our children that they are not ADHD!  ADHD is something that they have but we are here to teach them ways to harness its power.  They have creativity and energy that we cannot fathom.  Yes, the world will ask them to conform to it’s boring routines and rhythms but we are here to help them figure out how.  And no matter how many timeouts or sideways glances they may get we love our kids unconditionally.  Don’t ever forget to remind them….each and every day!

Happy Mother’s Day fellow warrior.  You may not have chosen this elite breed of parenthood but I’m damn sure you’ve got what it takes.

xoxo,

Jen