My Three Ring Circus, Part 2

Approaching this task is most analogous to directing a three ring circus - with a blindfold on!  

You stumble along unable to discern what is going on.  You cannot anticipate or predict what is going to happen next with your child.  You are on stage in front of a watching crowd and it seems as though you have very little control.  There is no time for you to be frozen in fear or indecision.  As a ringmaster, blindfolded or not, you need to get involved with what is going on in every ring - emotionally, socially, and physically.  They must all be dealt with simultaneously.  The events in one area do not slow down or stop allowing you to "catch up' in another area.

You must be the conductor, the choreographer, the stage manager, the animal trainer, the clown and the janitor.  The role of the parent is to literally be the case manager - managing everything from medication to make-up, junk food to juvenile delinquent behavior and diapers to diplomas!  YOU are the one. The responsibility falls squarely upon your shoulders as the parent.

At the precise moment your child draws his first breath, you as the parent of a child with ADHD are hurled into the harsh, cold ring of reality known as parenthood.  Shortly after the euphoria of the first few months wears off, you are struggling to gain your balance an perspective as you peer around the huge circus tent stretched out before you!

In the far distant corner, a tiny, almost imperceptible banner diminishes in the breeze.  The word on it reads EXIT, but you can tell from the size of the banner, that it is far far away.  In solemnity worthy of the moment, you take an inward vow for life.  YES, you are in charge now.  You have heard those seven words, "Your life will never be the same" but

the meaning of those words and that vow for parents of a child with ADHD has even greater significance.