Queen of the Distracted

Imagine life in a house with 6 kids - now imagine if 5 of those kids and their father have ADD/ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) - that is our house! Welcome to an inside view of my life and our home dominated by ADHD... THERE IS NEVER A DULL MOMENT!

Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls!

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls!"

Those were our oldest daughter Rachel's first words, from the time she was a toddler she would belt them out proudly standing on the arm of the couch. At the time we had no idea what ADHD was or that it would play such a central roll in our lives.

Since then we have learned a lot, not the least of which is how many individuals and families suffer in silence. We have experienced first hand how misunderstood and misrepresented a disorder can be.

As a family we decided to take action - to risk embarrassment and labeling to get this important message out to the world. Come join our family, share in our lives, and see ADD/ADHD as we see it...
A gift with a heavy price tag.

WELCOME to life in the ADD/ADHD House!

Friday, January 15, 2010

Shock and Awe

Not to claim to have heard it all but my daughter laid one on me this evening that really took me by surprise. That is not easy… especially with this daughter.

I had been gone all day at a doctor’s appointment for myself, Remicade, for an Auto-Imune disease (Ankylosing Spondylitis). When I returned home I got the normal barrage of updates about the day as I made my way back to my room where I found Mariah.

“I threw up on the bus today, mum.” Whoa, that got my attention. I was kind of wondering why I hadn’t heard about that one earlier in the day.

I usually tell the kids that they need to limit calls to me because I am in a room with a lot of other people getting this I.V. treatment. “Don’t call unless someone is barfing or there is blood involved.” Certainly not limited to those two items but meant to set a standard.

Don’t call to see if you can buy an iTunes song on my credit card or to rat out a sibling because they aren’t doing a chore (after all you aren’t doing your chores either you are ratting out someone else) or to help you decide who gets to be first player on the PS3.

“You threw up…ON the bus?” I was definitely sounding more alarmed than she was. Mariah has always had a weak stomach and lately it was acting up so it wasn’t a huge surprise to her. “Where did you throw up? On the seat? The floor?”

“Oh no,”
Mariah offered in the most casual voice ever,
“I opened my backpack and threw up in that.”

IN your backpack? 
WHAT? 
WHY?”
My mind was truly boggled… how could that seem like a reasonable alternative!? And let’s face it there is no real acceptable answer to that question.

My sixteen year old opened her backpack and barfed on her own belongings!
 

I had to force her to clean it out and as she was doing that I heard her sister say, “HEY... that’s the microphone for the computer I was looking for!”

We agreed that it was best to just throw the microphone away.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Im not sure the location to puke was the most disturbing thing here. She walked around with it ALL-DAY and still hadn't cleaned it until you made her... -shiver-

Lisa Aro said...

I know...right?! common sense, logic, cleanliness, all lost.

I had to tell her to clean it out and wash it.

I'm a Ninja!!! said...

You know, to be completely honest, i don't think I'm surprised. If it were anyone else, i would be. Mariah? Just another one of those things that makes her, her.