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!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Mother's Day Family Planning Meeting -- A Present in Itself

My husband, Mark, asked Hannah to take notes during our family meeting this morning.  We have family meetings all the time as a way to handle issues or get organized and headed the same direction.  This one was special because the kids had planned to do a big Spring clean for Mother's Day.  Basically, at the end of the meeting he wanted there to be a list of jobs and assignments.  

These meetings take forever in our house for obvious reasons.  We spend more time exiting the freeway onto some tangent and getting back on track more than we actually stay on track.  They are, however, terribly entertaining.

The kids heard Mark asked Hannah to take notes and they all scattered to get notebooks.  Hannah is our one non-ADHD child, he wanted a comprehensive check list everyone could follow.  He tried to stop everyone before they got too far off track.  It wasn't working.  Seeing as they were already coming back with notebooks in hand, I thought this might be a fun experiment.  Let them all take notes, then we'll compare them, and see what information each child actually took in.

Mark got the meeting started again, "Okay,"  The heads went down, pencils to paper, they were ready and writing, "okay" was recorded.  I chuckled.   This was going to be interesting.  Lists and divisions of jobs were recorded.  Important instructions were recorded, "After Rachel is finished with laundry she helps Jaren with his quest for power."  I don't remember that but more than one person recorded it so it must have been said.

Mariah took a great deal of liberties with her list.  It was clearly a soapbox moment more than a checklist of jobs.  Most of it -- even the actual list of instructions -- are wrong.


NOTES for family meeting 5.6.2011

*Delilah  likes pistachios (one of our little dogs)
Team Leaders
Fernando, Rachel, Mariah (that's me!) 
Hannah- clean and organize bathroom
*Rachel is not found a adequate candidate for team captain by many of her siblings.
Rachel would have been shot by a firing squad and does not take this meeting seriously.
Watch for her grabbing clubs with spikes and ointment - red flag
She, Rachel, did not text back and fancies me a rear end
Okay
She, Rachel, is negative about the outcome of this meeting
She reminisces about corn dog princess and burrito man
Daddy is thinking
Hunter is paired with Fernando
Rachel, just --nevermind
The counter is the bane of his (daddy's) existence
Rachel enjoys placing blame on others.  She is the butt of our jokes.
Funeral potatoes
Mary Margaret has the girls bathroom.  She is not on a team.
Daddy places blame with out basis in fact.
...I am the Alpha and Omega
We are giving Mum a clean house for Mother'sDay
Rachel is the on-call paramedic and in-charge... conditionally 
Jaren is our team leader and the power is going to his head and coming out his ears
After Rachel is done with laundry she helps Jaren with his quest for power and glory

It was a fun meeting, a great present, and a wonderful Mother's Day.



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