Friday, March 20, 2009

I'm afraid for my kids if it is. This week my kids decided to behave like stereotypical pastor's kids. Well, not the baby but what can he do?

Wednesday my daughter got 3 demerits at school (4 equals detention) and one of those was from hitting her best friend. What on earth?

Then my son finished destroying his nap mat. OK, I admit I hate the way they handle the whole nap situation. The boy doesn't take a nap unless he is ill. My oldest is the same but her teacher will make her lay quietly for 15 minutes then let her get a toy that doesn't make noise or a book to keep herself entertained. His teacher makes him lay on his mat and not move for 2 hours. Can you imagine lying still for 2 hours wide awake? Now imagine being a 4 year old. Yeah pretty bad, but still I hate that he destroys stuff. OK sure I destroyed plenty but that is different. I was bored and bad things happen when I'm bored. (Like I said I'm concerned ADHD is genetic).

Anyways, my daughter just started the daycare and wouldn't you know it, she got in trouble on Wednesday too. She normally takes a nap. If she doesn't she gets very cranky. For some reason she doesn't take her nap at day care. I think the change in setting is the issue. She has been pretty good except for Wednesday. She decided to moon the class. She pulled her pants and panties down and had her legs up over her head wagging her bare butt in the air. Maybe streaking is genetic too?

I'm hoping it is just spring fever and that they will settle back down to their normal well behaved selves soon. Anyone else having crazy kid issues? What about when you kids were younger?

5 comments:

katdish said...

While never diagnosed, I strongly suspect my mom is ADD. I am (obviously), and so is my 11 year old son. Oh, and so is my brother. My daughter takes after her dad - more OCD than ADD, but mostly just "normal", whatever that means.

Here's a very unscientific test: Give your kids mountain dew or some other highly caffinated beverage. If they don't become more hyper or even tend to calm down a bit, that might be an indication. Knowing is half the battle. ADD and ADHDcan be very frustrating to all parties involved. But it can also be an incredible blessing in disguise.

There's really no way of knowing now how my life would have turned out differently if my folks had encouraged my creativity instead of wanting me to pursue more "marketable" endeavors. Not that I'm complaining - I really love my life, and difficulties allow God to mold us.

Nick the Geek said...

I'm not too worried about my kids except in school. Lots of teachers don't understand how to deal with it. Back in the day we had lots more activity in school and that helped, but they seem to have the kids sitting or laying still half more than half the day. Poor kids can't be expected to last through that at their ages. At the house it only becomes a problem on icky weather days.

Anonymous said...

Most kids that I know who have been diagnosed with ADHD can easily sit still for an entire movie, or play a video game for 3 hours straight.

Makes me doubt it even exists. If it does, it is much less prevalent than society thinks, and often misdiagnosed.

To your point, though, a 4 year old laying on a mat for 2 hours every day? That's insane. We make our 4 yr old "rest" while our 2 year old naps, but we give her books and dolls to occupy her time if she doesn't fall asleep.

peace|dewde

Nick the Geek said...

dewde,

I know that most ADD/ADHD kids are pretty functional. If I was in school as a kid right now I would have been diagnosed with it by the school counselors. My parents would have refused to put me on the drugs but still.

I worked with a bunch of ADHD preteens a few years back. It was a Wednesday night boys program and I had 8 kids by myself. I was suppose to be the assistant leader but the leader quit because the boys were "unmanageable."

I was told they were all diagnosed with ADHD and supposed to be on drugs but their parents wouldn't give them their meds before church so they could give it to them when they got home and get peace and quiet instead of dealing with them as the meds were wearing off.

I tried a couple things but learned that "playing" (aka running them till they couldn't move for 15-20 minutes) combined with positive reinforcement produced excellent results and we were not only able to cover all our topics we were able to get caught up with where we should have been had we not lost half a year.

I think ADD/ADHD is a natural development of trying to make kids sit still for hours a day without enough play through the day. When I was in school we would be outside from the second school was out till dinner and then again after dinner till dark. I support this.

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