Y'all, this is quite clearly a book that someone needs to write. Of course, that someone can't be the parent of an ADHD child...we're too busy going beyond bonkers.
Dear Lord. I'm having a heckuva time figuring this stay-at-home parent thing out. And, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure I'm cut out for it. Keeping her on a schedule...not letting her just rot her brain in front of the television...these are HARD things to do.
I'm a little ADHD, and a whole lot unwinding myself.
I'm not sure which is doing it to my inability to function more...the unwinding - cause I was Mach 10 till the end of last week, and lovin' every minute - or my own disability. I suspect the latter. It's just WAY too easy for me to get distracted here at home, without the structure of bells at school.
That may, actually, be why I know so many phenomenal teachers who are ADHD...structure forced on us, and the primary unteachable skill of the job involves being able to think on the fly.
But, wait, I digress. See...that's been my whole week. And I NEEDED it.
I think she NEEDED it too. But now, watching her, I'm not entirely sure that we don't need a lower dose of meds for the summer. She needs meds...there's NO function without them, thanks to the epilepsy devil drug. But when it's just she and I...I'm not sure.
The only way to assess that may very well be to ...gasp...impose a school-like schedule on the two of us. You know..."music from x to x; reading time from y to y; and so on" until I'm structured. I HATE that.
Not the structure part...I can feel my control over my world starting to slip, and I need it too.
No, what I hate is that my child can't just be a child. I don't want to over program her. The days of knocking on a door and running around the neighborhood are gone, though, cause even the friends who claim they don't over program their kids actually do. BUT she HAS to have structure imposed from without.
And that, my friends, is not what summer should be about - even for an almost kindergartener.
So...where is this ADHD free-association going? The Demie Diva needs a schedule. I'm not an early childhood specialist, so I welcome suggestions. I need a schedule, which, to be honest, is easier said than done given the vagaries of a nearly five year old and her inconsistent other parent.
I'll cite you as a source if I ever write my book...
Lord, it's going to be a long summer.
What The What?
9 years ago
Well, a schedule doesn't have to be from 8am to 10 am kind of thing. We too need a schedule but in the summer it turns in to in the am we do painting and in the mid am we go for a bike ride and then after that we go to the park. It's still loosey goosey-ish, but loosey goosey on a schedule. I mean, I'd like to live moment to moment with no though to what comes next but BG cannot do that. So we have our schedule.
ReplyDelete*sigh* I feel your pain.
Well, not exactly your pain, but something like it. ;-)
We have a schedule, but not a rigid one. But Ariana didn't have one and I let her play her nintendo and watch endless disney and nick because I was so exhausted from my mom passing and packing up her whole house, that I just wanted to sleep, so Ariana let me and I let her not have a schedule, yet she knew what it was going to be most days. Angelina went to summer school and she needed it. But now we are trying to transition and she's OFF the freaking walls and it's hard. 3 more weeks till school and schedule again. I don't know. We need a schedule but I find if I tell them what is going to happen when, they are ok with that. That's just how I do it. How about some activities for Diva to do? It's probably too late to sign her up for something, I missed the deadline for the girls for swimming. I am at a loss, I just try to tell them what will happen each day and hope for the best (hasn't worked for me yet, but oh well).
ReplyDelete