Childhood ADHD: You Know Your Kid Has ADHD When…
ADDitude parents share childhood attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) behaviors or quirks they can’t live with and couldn’t live without.
We asked, “You know your child has ADHD when…” and you shared these funny, sad, and poignant kid ADHDisms. Read. Share. Enjoy. Here’s to living well with — and finding humor in — attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)!
1. You send him upstairs to get dressed, and 20 minutes later, he’s sitting naked on the floor, EXAMINING his socks.
2. She can’t spell unless she’s HANGING UPSIDE DOWN, BOUNCING on a trampoline, OR SPINNING in an office chair.
3. “CLIMBING THE WALLS” isn’t a metaphor in your home.
4. In the span of five minutes, your child ASKS ABOUT A MILLION QUESTIONS — all about totally different topics.
5. He walks in the room and asks, “Mommy?” then stares at the ceiling, forgets what he was going to tell you, then says “I love you!” instead — 10 times a day!
6. A wrapper leads to a marvelous world of unbelievable inventions and magnificent ADVENTURES.
[Get This Free Download: Your Child’s Unique “ADHDisms”]
7. You check the lost-and-found box each Friday and leave with a bag filled with your child’s belongings — and SHE HAS NO IDEA ANYTHING’S MISSING.
8. While being asked not to interrupt others, your child talks for five minutes about how he will not interrupt.
9. You secretly fear that a public health inspector will force you to close down your house!
10. HE SPENDS HOURS ON A HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT (with constant encouragement/nagging) and then leaves it at home on the day it is due.
11. Your 13-year-old daughter stays up studying until 3 a.m. — but a good deal of that time is spent decorating her note cards with different colored markers, stickers, and rhinestones.
12. Your son, UNABLE TO PAY ATTENTION to his teacher’s explanation of how to play dodgeball, flies around the gym playing “airplane” by himself instead.
13. You ask your child why she is carrying all of her textbooks in her bag and she replies, “I can never remember to take the right book for homework, so this way I won’t GET IN TROUBLE FOR MISSING ASSIGNMENTS again.”
14. The “quick” walk that sounded like a good idea ends up taking all afternoon because your son stops to rescue every worm, snail, and slug on the trail.
15. Your daughter insists on reading a book while you’re reading her a bedtime story — and she ABSORBS BOTH.
16. Your child tries to brush his teeth and play with a bouncy ball AT THE SAME TIME.
17. Your daughter plans outfits to coordinate with plot changes in the movie she’s watching.
18. Your child manages to get himself stuck in the washing machine — a top-loader at that!
19. YOUR KID TALKS NONSTOP — and you never have to chime in to keep the conversation going.
20. You find your daughter’s dirty underwear…on her bookshelf.
21. You think you live with Jim Carey or Robin Williams.
22. HER NAME IS MENTIONED, CALLED, AND SCREAMED 10 times as often as the others in the house.
23. You go shopping, and he SIMULTANEOUSLY swims and flies through the aisles of the store.
24. People around you smile kindly or say things like, “He sure is all boy” or “YOU HAVE YOUR HANDS FULL.” They have no idea!
25. You realize that YOUR CHILD WILL SUCCEED IN LIFE IN WAYS YOU HAVEN’T, because when all you want to do is press the snooze button in the morning, she’s ready to get up and get going!
