Letting go of mom guilt when you have a child with ADHD or RAD isn’t easy. When I was a younger mom I carried a lot of mom guilt with me. I told myself if I just tried harder, if I’d recognized “x” sooner, if I just said the right things, read more books about my kids’ challenges, tried one more program, was more patient, was more involved at their schools, was less this, was more that, then maybe my child would be happier, be less angry, have more friends, would get along better with their siblings, would treat me better, and so on. The guilt weighed me down for so long, crushing me and pushing me to work harder, do more and be more, more, more.
My writing goal for today was to edit two chapters of my middle grade novel. I hadn’t even made it half way through the first of the two chapters when at 3 pm I looked at the clock and found myself saying, I got nothing done today. Living with kids with ADHD poses many . . . I was going to say problems . . . but that’s not the right word. It poses many challenges and opportunities which can be very time consuming causing parents to feel like they got nothing done.
One common phrase that used to be repeated in our house everyday multiple times a day was PERSONAL SPACE. Why is it so hard for children with ADHD to respect personal space, and how do you teach them to give others space?