The New "Normal"

When you have a child that is diagnosed with ADHD your life changes. As does the child's life.  We have had to, and are STILL trying to, add a lot of structure to our lives. Routines are good.  Schedules are good. It's been a real struggle to try to calm the chaos of our lives. My son is involved in sports, which I am a big proponent of as exercise has been proven to help the ADHD brain. We have extremely busy schedules. My husband I both work full time in addition to raising our two beautiful children.

I have tried very hard, and often fallen flat on my face, to make homework a less stressful time in our household. It is usually filled with tears, crying, screaming, and fits.  We call them meltdowns because that it was happens. My son has a complete emotional meltdown.  Something as simple as writing his spelling words 5 times each can turn into a 2 hour ordeal of tears and fits. He cries and says he can't do it. He can't concentrate. He isn't smart enough. And it breaks, read: tears into tiny shreds, my heart. He is very intelligent and even made the all A honor roll the first 9 weeks of school this year. This is compounded by the fact that he gets his "clip moved" nearly every day in class because he cannot sit still or is blurting things out in class.  He has never been a "table captain". This breaks my heart. He wants more than anything to be a table captain. Every other child in his class has been. This has been another huge obstacle for us this year. He has a 504 plan and I am not certain that it is being followed. But that is a post for another day and a battle that I have been fighting recently. He doesn't know that he has a 504 plan and I hope to keep it that way for as long as I am able. I make a concentrated effort to tell my son every single day that I am proud of him and that I think he is an awesome and amazing kid. Because he is.  He has persevered this year.  He is my hero. :)

Not that we have ever been "normal", we pride ourselves on putting the "fun" in dysfunction.  :o)  We like to have a good time with each other and make jokes.  Keeping our sense of humor has been a lot harder this year but some days it's the only thing that helps us get through the day. 

What are some ways you deal with the chaos?