Halloween Songs For Piano
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The Wonders of My ADHD Child
The Wonders of My ADHD Child
“Hey Mom, don’t you think cockroaches are beautiful in their own way?”
As I hurry down the front steps in the typical school morning rush, my daughter is kneeling on the walkway looking at not only a cockroach, but what I would call Mr. Cockroach! It’s huge, brown, nasty and crawling on my walkway. Its antennae could pick up radio signals. My daughter doesn’t lift her head but asks me again.
“Don’t you think so Mom?”
“Catie, don’t touch that thing!”
“I’m not touching it, I’m just looking at it.” My child is very precise.
"We’ve got to get to school.”
Obviously, our schedule is not near as interesting as the insect. As she buckles her seatbelt, I toss her the hand sanitizer that I keep in the car.
“Wash your hands.”
“But, I didn’t touch it.” Did I mention very precise?
“Wash them anyway.”
Catie slides down in the backseat with her feet propped on the headrest in front of her. I am the chauffeur driving around what appears to oncoming traffic as two wiggly feet with no apparent body attached. The book she is reading on the way to school mentions something about chickens so Catie decides to answer my questions of do you have your homework, or did you remember your piano book with chicken sounds. Finally, we arrive at school and the carline student opens the door for her to get out. I wish her a good day and she responds with a loud “BAAAK” and continues crowing until she reaches the school door with no concern for the looks from the other students. The carline greeter child gives me a smile and shakes her head as she wishes me a good day and closes the car door. I drive away thinking, “That’s Catie!!”
Catie is my beautiful blonde, blue-eyed, eleven year old daughter. She was diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) when she was five years old. I had heard other parents talking about people who medicated their child when it was only a behavior problem that proper parenting would fix. I asked the doctors if there were behavior modifications, routines or practices we could do at home so that we wouldn’t have to put Catie on medication. I was simply told that Catie would never be able to survive a classroom setting if she wasn’t on medication for her ADHD. She has been on medicine for the past six years and I am very pleased with the results. I urge any parent who thinks their child may have ADHD to get all the information they can and talk to doctors, teachers, and other parents so they can make the best decision for their child.
Like other parents of ADHD children, I have sat in the principal’s office as we discuss ways to help my child sit still in class, stay in line, wait her turn, etc. I have met with teachers who beg me to help Catie finish her assignments, quit reading her library book during a math test, and stop getting up from her seat because she feels she needs to exercise at any given moment. Yes, these are but a few of the woes of the ADHD parent. Also, a clean room is just not going to happen.
However, there are also amazingly wonderful things about an ADHD child. While teachers, principals, her Dad and I try to teach Catie how to deal with life, Catie continually shows us how to live it. I pick out her clothes each day except for weekends. On weekends it is Catie’s choice. Most times, regardless of the weather, it could be a combination of her favorite cowgirl boots (the pink ones), khaki shorts and a long sleeve turtleneck with a toboggan cap or her beloved archeologist’s hat like the movie icon. Her beautiful blonde hair still in bed-head mode or half of it has been put into a ponytail and the rest just falls as it may. This is how we go to the grocery store, the video store, or to a restaurant with friends. She proudly walks into the living room with her latest fashion combination. When I roll my eyes, she simply says, “It’s comfortable.” While looking over the menu, she sings the theme song to an outer space movie or some commercial jingle that got stuck in her head. She uses two or three straws to sip her soda and sometimes makes one long one.
On the way home, the boots are off and if I am the lucky passenger this time, I have one bare foot by each ear. Of course, she didn’t think to put on socks. The boots come back on long enough to get back in the house and then they land just inside the door. Telling her to put them in her room does not mean that she will put them where they belong in her room. Just throwing them into her room from the hallway meets my criteria. I have learned to be very specific with instructions. Her room is a mess, but her coins are separated into pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters, and her rock collection is in pristine condition. Candy wrappers litter the floor from Halloween but as soon as trick or treating was done, she counted her treasure, divided the candy into groups and gave away those pieces that she didn’t like.
It made me consider that I might be happier if I was a little more like my child. So, I am trying to be more like Catie, to see splendor in the small things that surround me everyday. I take care to organize my favorite things, but don’t stress about the house being spotless. I am trying not to worry so much about my make-up, my hair or my wardrobe, but to be comfortable in my own skin and feel confident wherever I am. I am starting to sing while I wash the dishes or fold the clothes. Sometimes I dance around the house or run down the hall when no one is looking. I am striving to be the sort of person who can call each day GREAT just because I got to participate in it even if I didn’t finish all my tasks. And maybe, someday, somehow, I will even find beauty in a cockroach. I’m not quite there yet.
About the Author
Cherri Walker is a freelance writer, life coach and teacher. She has been writing articles, poetry and short stories for many years. She is currently working on a collection of short stories, essays and poems called Windows and Wanderings.
Scary Halloween piano instrumental