It occurred to me that I mostly write about the struggles and challenges my daughter with ADHD faces and that is just not fair. I think parents of ADHDers can all agree that while having ADHD can make life more difficult and stressful for both our children and ourselves at times, it also provides our children with a lot of amazing qualities. These qualities are going to allow our children to go far in life and become very successful. Many people with ADHD grow up to be entrepreneurs, inventors, and trend-setters. Very important and famous people from the past that had ADHD were Mozart, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, and Walt Disney. Some celebrities from today that have ADHD are Will Smith, Justin Timberlake, Michael Phelps, and Adam Levine. Pretty amazing contributors to society, right? My daughter is only six years old and I have already noticed many awesome qualities about her that I, myself am jealous of.
Here are my Top 10 Favorite Qualities About My Child With ADHD:
1. Creative – My kid’s imagination is astounding! She creates fun games (complete with rules and everything) that she plays with her sister all the time. Like most kids her age, she says that doing her homework is boring, especially math. To make doing her homework more enjoyable, she took it upon herself to turn her homework into a game she created called “Hand Slap Math.”
2. Adventurous – My kid is definitely a risk taker, which I am both proud of and scared to death of at the same time. At the park, you will find her climbing to the very top of a jungle gym and then freely hanging upside down like she doesn’t have a care in the world. She isn’t afraid of things I am afraid of. For example, she had no problems holding a snake and a hissing cockroach at an exhibit we went to a couple of years ago. She isn’t afraid to take risks or do things out of most people’s comfort zones and I really admire that about her.
3. Fun – She really is a lot of fun! Although she doesn’t have a ton of friends, she has a nice little group of girls she plays with at school and has playdates with now. Sometimes, I sit back and watch my daughter interact with her friends and I think to myself, “Man, I wish I had a friend like that when I was a kid!” She is so funny, silly, goofy, and witty! I adore the way she makes her friends smile and laugh all the time. Heck, I adore the way she makes me smile and laugh all the time!
4. Energetic – If I had just 10% of my kid’s energy, I could accomplish so much more during the day. From the moment she wakes up to the moment I ask her to put her pajamas on, she is bouncing off the walls. Staying in her seat during dinner is downright impossible. She will take a bite, get up and walk around the room, and then come back to take another bite. We bought her a trampoline to help her get out some of her never-ending energy and that seems to wear her out for a little bit, but after a glass of water, she is good to go again!
5. Unique – My child has always marched to the beat of her own drum. Even at a very young age, her favorite color was green while all the other girls her age were obsessed with pink. Her favorite animals were frogs and bats while other children’s favorite animals were puppies and bunnies. It hadn’t really dawned on me until now that the reason my child is so drawn to things that are unordinary is because she is unordinary herself (in a good way)! She’s truly a breath of fresh air. She isn’t afraid to go against the norm and be her true self.
6. Curious – You know how they say kids ask 300 questions a day? Well, my kid asks double that. She wants to know about everything and she wants to know the answer right then and there. Once she’s interested and focused on something, she will not take “Not right now, sweetie” for an answer and honestly, I don’t always know the answers myself. Luckily, what I do have is an iPhone. Thank God for Siri!
7. Resourceful – I am pretty certain that MacGyver had ADHD, because my kid is ridiculously resourceful just like him. It’s like she is a “Special” from The LEGO Movie, but with EVERYTHING. She has the ability to see and recognize things ordinary people (like me) can’t. She is definitely an out of the box thinker and I absolutely love that about her. One time, she asked me for a magnet so she could hang up a drawing she had done, but I was in the middle of cooking dinner, so I wasn’t able to help her find one. My self-sufficient daughter took it upon herself to attach a rubber band to a bag clip, then attach her drawing to the bag clip, and then hang the rubber band on a door handle to display it. Eat your heart out, Macgyver!
8. Ability To Hyper-Focus – Homework can feel like torture for her (and me), because if she isn’t interesting in something and the subject is pretty boring, she has a hard time staying on task. If it is something she is interested in though, that’s a total game changer. She does this cool thing where she turns our used cardboard boxes into rocketships by drawing buttons on the inside, putting stickers on the outside, and taping streamers to the back. It takes quite a bit of time to create these rocketships, but once she starts, she goes into hyper-focus mode and doesn’t stop until the rocketship is completed. It’s pretty amazing to see.
9. Good Negotiator – She knows her bedtime is 8:00, yet every single night, she tries to push it back. She knows I love it when she reads and reading is not her strongest subject right now, so she’ll ask me, “If I promise to read one of my books for 10 minutes, can I go to bed right after that?” The kid is smart, I tell you. On her last report card, her teacher said that if my daughter doesn’t like an answer the teacher gives her, she will argue with the teacher about it. I know the teacher sees this as a weakness, but I see it as a strength.
10. Inspiring – To say that ADHD kids go through a lot is an understatement. Unless you or someone close to you has ADHD, you will not fully understand what their life is like. There are so many coexisting conditions that can arise because of ADHD, such as depression, anxiety, and ODD. This is a tough subject for me to write about, because she is my baby girl and I love her so much, but she has also been diagnosed with depression. This absolutely kills me. I do my best to surround her with love, support, and positivity, but despite my best efforts unfortunately, I can only do so much for her. She once told me, “I wish I was never born.” That was her darkest hour (and mine too). Fortunately, I have been seeing a positive change in her lately. I see her smiling more, laughing more, and actually getting excited about things. I finally see her enjoying her life, which is all I’ve ever wanted for her. To see her coming out of that darkness (as shown in the video) and stepping into the light is so incredibly inspiring to me. She is and always will be my hero. I will never stop believing in her and advocating for her.
The list goes on and on about why I love my ADHDer. These were just my top ten favorites. What are your favorite quailities about your ADHDer?
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