ADHD and the FierceFamily

It’s been weeks since our last posting.  Did you see how Jamama posted like crazy for a while and then just sort of dropped off?  It’s not that she lost interest, or forgot about the blog…neither did I.  It’s just that life - or lifestyle - is notoriously unsympathetic toward those with ADHD.  At least our life.  And our lifestyle.

You see, routine is key for survival when you live with ADHD.  Summer is bad for routine.  The kids have been doing something totally different every single week since school let out.  They’ve been on four week-long trips with grandparents, four weeks of swim team (and all the associated madness), had two weeks of babysitters, playdates, sleepovers, and birthday parties, and are now split between skateboard camp (him) and a week home (her).  Next week they’re both at camp, then he’s home for a week while she does a second week of camp.  After that we’re all off for a week of “vacation,” then it’s back to school.

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Jamama: How do you know you have ADHD?

Non:I know I have ADHD because I can never sit still. I can’t keep track of my things. My room is SuPeR dirty. I forget stuff all the time, this one time I was on a camping trip and in the middle of the drive there I said,”Oh darn-it I forgot my water bottle and Dartainian (my favorite stuffed animal) at the house.” Continue Reading »

My name is Row and I’m 6. To have ADHD is sort of hard. You can’t really remember things. And sometimes you forget what to say. Like right now, I’m forgetting what to say. And sometimes it makes me a little nervous to be in front of a lot and a lot of people. That’s all I can say. Bye! Oh. I didn’t mean to say bye. I meant to say, it gives me lots and lots of energy. It is not fun to have. It makes me feel like I want to move every single day. Every single millisecond. Now, I really mean Bye! That’s it. I mean, it makes you bored all the time. But sometimes it makes you hyper. Now I super duper mean B-B-Y-Y-E-E - Bye! bye! bye! bye! bye! bye! bye! bye! (I’m going to say that 100 times.) [Comment from jamama: he did.]

We are a family of four with ADHD - two of us hyperactive, two of us inattentive, and not an Executive Function among us. We are a vibrant, disorganized, busy, creative, underachieving, and goofy cast of characters…

Tim is the papa. He barely graduated high school, has gone to college a couple of times and may someday finish. He used to play drums in rock bands until the Internet came along and provided him with a more responsible way to contribute to the support of our family. He still misses life on the road where it was someone else’s job to schedule everything, wake him up, drive him to the next club, and make sure he had money for food.

Jamama is the mama. Student for 31 years who forgot to major in anything that would make us rich. She works with students with ADHD and has gazillions of ideas for how to organize other people. Unfortunately, her primary super-power is to make paper be fruitful and multiply, all over the house. Her second super-power is knitting; oh, but the power doesn’t include actually finishing any given knitting project.

Non is the girl-critter. Her super-power is singing 24-hours a day. Non loves drawing and singing and singing and drawing. She’s also a super smarty-pants, but don’t ask her to do, or think, or move anywhere fast. Nope. This girl moves through the world at her own pace, on her own time. She also possesses the super-power of making creative use of every object in a room at once. Why oh why don’t any of our super-powers involve the cleaning up of such expansive creativity?

Row is the boy-critter; speedy, agile, whip-smart, and kind. Young enough to cuddle and have fun holding hands; old enough to make sure none of that happens within 5 blocks of school. Row is clear that school is boring, involves too much sitting still, and too many rules. His super-power is wielding the non sequitur, and remembering details of events, movies, books, and shows that no one else remembers. Except when he just makes stuff up. And you can never tell the difference!

Oh! And then there’s Precious, the itty-bitty beagle-dog. Unabashedly, joyfully distractible - demanding cuddle-monkey - didn’t mean to break the rules - that squirrel is taunting me!

So here goes our new experiment in a life online.