Stuff to Do

I have four kiddos doing remote learning right now. It's not my favourite thing.  Each of them need individual supervision, and they cannot be in the same room at the same time. The older girls each get 90 minutes of my time. They're supposed to be doing 3 to 4 hours a day, according to their school. The younger two each get 60 minutes of my time, which is also less than they're "supposed" to be doing. That's 5 hours of supervision, leaving 1 hour a day for me to take phone calls, organise NDIS funding, send emails, attempt to do training for a potential job. If there are extras, like behaviour management, conflict resolution, canine enforcement (she will not stop grooming the chicken?!?), birthday preparations, lunchtime visit to McDonald's drive-through or "Mum come look at this Minecraft thing/Piggy cut scene/help me fix this slime which went wrong", well, I'm just going to have to forgo sleep.  Prior to diagnosis and treatment, during las

Think about the following scenario:  You feel hungry, so you decide to make a sandwich.  You get the bread, the fillings, the condiments out.  You assemble the sandwich.  What is your next step?  If you have ADHD, you probably eat the sandwich. You also forget the bread, fillings, condiments, and knife even exist, because you only got them out to make the sandwich. Putting all that stuff away is a brand new task, completely separate. And cleaning isn't exciting, it's not fun. You were meeting a need (hunger), and putting away the stuff you used has nothing to do with hunger.  Here's another example, from my own experience -  I put my desk together, and it was rewarding. I have a beautiful desk, and I love it. Putting all of the things away that came off the old desk was not part of building the desk, and without a late afternoon medication boost, I would not have done that job, because it was tedious.  Part of the difficulty with that sort of thing is that each step after t

How has ADHD impacted me as a mother? Prioritisation- Before I started medication, (or when it wears off) I could not prioritise anything. I literally could not look at my epic and delusional to-do lists and make a decision about things I could let go of or put off for another day. I could not prioritise household tasks. I would see all of it, get overwhelmed and not be able to start.  Procrastination- I have always been able to achieve incredible things under pressure. What I've learned is that I need adrenaline in order to help me focus, especially in tasks that are less enjoyable, or unpleasant. I would rather get up at 5am and race to clean the kitchen than go back to it after I've finally got the kids to bed. Yes, I hate getting up early, but I need that adrenaline burst to help me get started.  Caffeine- We've all seen the memes about motherhood and coffee, right? I had four children in five years. Of course I'm obsessed with coffee! When demands are low, a strong

 I changed my Facebook profile picture for the month of October, to acknowledge ADHD Awareness. A profile picture doesn't get the conversation happening though, so I thought I would take it further. I'm in between university sessions, so I have some time.  Growing up, I was 'the space cadet'. I was chatty, I asked a billion questions, I was always busy reading. I explored the woods behind my house, engaged in music, theatre, band, dance. Rearranged my bedroom ALL THE TIME. Forgot assignments, or procrastinated like a champ. Lost things, misplaced things, couldn't keep my room clean to save my life. My grades were average, with the possible exception of music, which I loved. Struggled with binge eating, too. My emotions were all over the shop. As a young adult, I missed deadlines, was perpetually late, and my apartment was a hot mess. As a new parent, I honestly don't know how we all survived. Adding sleep deprivation to an already maxed out brain seems cruel som