Laughing Every Day

My family of seven and I are truly, truly blessed to live life with Christopher, our 11 year old child with severe ADHD. Yes! he can drive you up the wall. Yes! he keeps the hot line “hot” between God and me. I can relate to all of the posts I read everyday here. We live this too. I am writing to express that we also live a flip side. With just about every mishap, for every time he causes me to count to 10 before reacting, there is usually a counter balance that comes at some point for us to live through too, and it is that counter that keeps our family off the sideline. The timing is sometimes a little off, but it’s there just the same. I can’t count the times that my wife and I have stumbled on to Christopher doing something absolutely hilarious and then later laugh together quietly (alone) to share the joy. An example: Yesterday our family went fishing and found ourselves laughing uncontrollably at one point after watching five geese chase Christopher alongside the pond. I am sure he was irritating them in some way. We sat there with our mouths open and listened to him squeal and watched him in full sprint with the rod and reel flying in the air. It’s like that with him almost everyday, and there is no doubt that he is an absolute unfolding miracle. I know all of our lives are tough, and I am not making light of our struggles. Sometimes pausing and finding humor to keep from going insane can make a big difference in how we interact with these very special children.

[Onthemove1971]

Thank you for this post... it is so hard to celebrate the amazing minds of our children.

My husband and I say we know when he is an adult he will conquer the world. He has such perseverance and grit that when it all works for him it will be amazing.

I love the story... I could see my son being the same way poking at them and teasing them and them trying to get back at him.

Take care!

[Phenomenon]

Absolutely! I adore this post. Our kids normalcy can be both comical and mindboggling. But it's really important to let them be who they are. My family and I have our private moments of laughter as well. Once these kids grow up and find their niche-- with all the energy that will be contributed, success will definitely FOLLOW!

[Canadianmum]

I love your post! Thank you. I 😂 at the part about keeping the hotline “hot”.

[RCJH8610]

I love everything about this post and couldn’t agree more. Having a child with ADHD is a challenge, but it is also a beautiful gift. God bless ❤️

[Hezzer]

Thanks for this reminder! Our son is also hilarious and so so irreverent that I'm sure he will be one of those people who goes beyond expectations and breaks the mold in an important way. He is no follower! We do need to celebrate our incredibly gifted (though challenging) kids!!

[Onthemove1971 in reply to Hezzer]

When my son was in 5th grade I went to back to school night with him. The teacher asked the parents to walk around the room and try to find a bar graph that each child made. The bar graph was about things they liked or were good at.

Of course I could find our sons... not only did he put sports as high as the could on the graph, but when graphing sewing and gardening he went BELOW the graph line. My friend was with me and she could not find her "neuro-typical" kids graph.

They just stand out...

This is a time to really love them.. so sonn they wi have their own life to navigate where our role is to just coach.

Thanks!

[Hezzer]

and my son is a holy terror with the pigeons in the city--ha ha! I keep telling him they will poop on his head on of these days...

[abryans]

It is the same in our family. My son is hilarious and full of joy and curiosity. He is so hard sometimes- angry and oppositional, I am gritting my teeth, but I remember the funny, amazing bigger part of him and it is reassuring.

[555jms]

Thank you so much for sharing this! Yes, this is a time to celebrate their strengths and effervescent spirits. With the absence of the school semantics. One day I called my son to the table by saying

“Dinner is ready angel” he came to me and replied, “mom I’m not an angel, I’m just a fancy person”. ........ 😂 our kids are amazing let’s take this time to celebrate and love them deeply ❤️

[ConfrontingChallenge]

Thanks for this fun and uplifting story to begin another day of of covid-isolation. Today I’ll look for the fun and ridiculous and I’ll be sure to laugh out loud!