I haven’t figured out if I’m ashamed to say this, but most mornings I would consider an offer on my eldest child! My 12 year old daughter has ADD and our mornings are filled with her yelling at us for little things, being rough with our pets, and doing impulsive things that she wouldn’t normally do once her medicine has kicked in. I breathe a sigh of relief when the bus comes at 7:15. I’m often short with her, and mornings when my arthritis is scream full force (which has been, oh….. about 5 months straight now) I often yell back. This doesn’t make me feel good. I would never win an award for Mom of the Year. I simply do my best.

I’ve always known something was different about Kaitlyn. Her bio-dad was against me from the start. Needless to say, we’re no longer together. His idea of disciplining our yet to be diagnosed ADHD daugher at 2 1/2 years of age, was to yank her around and spank her. While I do occasionally lose my composure and spank her, I’m not proud of it, but I knew his way was completely wrong. When I have a gut feeling about one of my kids, nobody is able to sway me any other way!

It is necessary to take each day as it comes with no expectations of waking up to anything other than total chaos. I breathe my sigh of relief when she leaves in the morning, feel bad about that, and prepare to spend the rest of the day with my 4 year old. She demands a lot of attention, and really doesn’t understand that Mommy is really really sore and would rather not get up to get cocoa just yet. So I hobble to the fridge to get her cocoa. We manage to fill our day until my daughter and son get home from school. I haven’t mentioned him yet…he’s 9, and has his little hands full dealing with his big sister. I try to look on the bright side and think that his experiences with her will make him a better person. I hope so…..off hobble to the DVD player to put a new movie on…..

Dawn Klenow-Lampinen

http://packagedtoperfection.com