Why??

[Pisces945]

My son is 6 and suffers with ADHD and aggression. Recently, close relatives have felt that it is okay to yell and scream at my son, grab him by one arm and even hit him and threaten him. Right in front of me sometimes. I suppose, they believe it is justified because of his behavior - even knowing of my son’s disability!! My husband feels it’s justified. I am no longer in speaking terms with my father and brother-in-law now because of recent events and my whole family thinks I’m overreacting. I’m furious and sad. My son gets upset at the time but then seems to have a thick skin and forget about it minutes later but I absolutely do not. I never ever ever harm my son - physically or verbally. I have ADHD too and truly understand him like no one else. Sorry, rant over.

[MomofOne13]

I completely understand how frustrating it is to try to discipline a hyper, angry child. First, I urge you to make it clear to your relatives that they do not have the right to discipline your son, especially if you're standing right there. They need to come to you if they have an issue and let you handle it (best you can). But I'm really posting today to mention something that has already had a tremendous positive impact in how my husband and I both interact our ADHD 7 year old son. We are going through a process with a trained psychologist call PCIT. "Parent Child Interactive Therapy". In my case, luckily, our insurance is covering most of the cost. It takes a few months to learn, but basically it improves our interactions, starting on a "play" level, by teaching us skills such as how to give "labelled praise" and then progresses into giving commands and very specific consequences for not following them. We're not completely through the process yet, but we can already see improvements at home that I'm hoping will create improvements at school as well. My understanding is that is proven to work really well in the 3 to 8 year old range. I urge you and anyone else with that age ADHD child to look up a therapist in your area trained in PCIT.

[momwifedaughtersis]

Hi, I’m new here and ran across your post. I am starting to have similar challenges with family and wondered how you are doing. My son is 7 and we don’t have a diagnosis yet. I know how much stress the challenges with our son has put on our marriage. Hope you are doing ok.