For my children, hearing, listening, following directions, and (oh, let me just say it) compliance with others is like pulling teeth.  (*Cringe*.)  There are many days when I feel like I’ve failed as a parent, and my kids are still so young.  When you throw in their ADHD (and mine) into the mix, it makes for some pretty difficult days. Read more »

My child’s behavior issues started at age two.  Out in public, he would appear to strangers to be a spoiled, indulged kid.  Strangers would glare at my ineffective parenting.  I kept quiet and secretly thought about printing up business cards to explain our situation.

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Teenagers, especially boys, begin talking about driving by the time they’re 15. In some states, a Learner’s Permit is available at 15 and a driver’s license at 16. Statistics show that 16-year-old drivers have more accidents per driving mile than any other age. Generally, about 20 percent of fatal speed-related crashes are caused by drivers between the age of 15 and 19. (More than half of those annual fatalities could be prevented by wearing seatbelts.)

Youth with ADHD or ADD, in their first 2 to 5 years of driving, have nearly four times as many automobile accidents, are more likely to cause bodily injury in accidents, and have three times as many citations for speeding as young drivers without ADHD.

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My husband Jerry and I sat down eagerly to listen to the first lesson in the audio portion of the Total Transformation program. We had already completed the introduction and couldn’t wait to hear the good news: How to stop our son Thomas’ obnoxious, abusive and disrespectful behavior!

Thomas is our 11 year old son (from my previous marriage) and he happens to have special needs which include Asperger’s, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Bipolar Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Quite the mouthful and handful!

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I began using the Total Transformation Program by James Lehman the minute it landed in my mailbox. I even opened it up in the car before driving home so that I could inspect the contents. I could not wait to begin! I perused and panned through everything. I scanned the upcoming lessons and wanted to jump through more than one lesson a night (despite the warning not to in the introduction).

My husband, upon seeing the program folder in my hand and the smile upon my face, grimaced and said “Oh, it’s here, huh?”

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I ended my last blog post for EP by saying that our daughter was given the diagnosis of ADHD and began Ritalin in first grade, which seemed to be a miracle…

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From the day we took my son home from the hospital, I knew it was going to be a wild ride.   He cried all night long and didn’t stop for six months.   He was adopted and we knew little about his birth parents’ medical history and none of their family’s history.  After six months, my son was a happy but very impulsive, hyper little boy.  If a thought crossed his mind he was carrying it out no matter how often we said “NO!”  He was always very good at approaching new people and making friends.  Staying friends was more of a problem.  His lack of impulse control did not allow him to realize how much he was irritating and sometimes hurting others.  Play turned into someone’s feelings getting hurt because he would not stop when they asked him to stop when the play turned too rough for them.  Little did I know at that time that I was set to micromanage his life from there on out.

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My name is Melody, and I’m the mother of three children — two of which are diagnosed ADHD, as am I.  I’m excited to begin blogging here on Empowering Parents. Today’s disjointed society separates us from one another, yet through websites such as this we can be the village that it takes to raise our children.  The things I hope to blog about, muse on and mull over — regarding my parenting children with behavioral challenges — may bring about comments from others that I hope will make me think, learn, and grow as both a parent and as a person.  I hope to put out there the truth that I experience. Maybe it can help other parents to see that they are not alone either.  Thanks for joining me.

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