Parents May Need to Provide Attention to Treat Children With ADHD
Attention Deficit. These first two words in the name of this disorder say it all. It’s amazing that in the last 30-40 years or so, the diagnosis of ADHD has increased tremendously. More people have heard of it than ever before and most can name someone they know that has it.
It’s also an explorable coincidence that in the last 30-40 years the number of households with two parents working outside the home has skyrocketed. My opinion; there is a correlation. More children than ever in our country’s history are not getting the attention that they deserve and so badly need.
Does this sound familiar? You get up and everyone rushes to prepare for the day, some may express frustration as children are slow to wake up or get dressed. Or the bathroom is occupied for just a little too long and the fear of being late causes anxiety to rise. The day goes by and everyone gets home. There is dinner to prepare, cleaning and/or laundry to be done and one or more of the children may have an extracurricular activity (or two) to attend. When the evening rush is over, it’s now time to make unwilling children go to bed. Of course they whine or cry, they just want to talk to their parents .
This is the sad reality in many households every day. Daycares raise our little ones. Attention time is very scarce compared to the days when mothers were at home the majority of the day. Children do anything to get a reaction from their parents whether it is a negative or a positive reaction. I am not discounting that some children may have a disorder, but two year olds? Come on now. To boot, they are given the diagnosis without an exact way to diagnose the “disorder” except for a particular set of behaviors that are actually “normal” behaviors of many children. These behaviors could be caused by a variety of reasons, including stress, lonliness or lack of good parenting skills. Children can easily become stressed as life is hardly in their control.
The reality is that children are not little adults as many people expect them to be. Their minds are different and they are curious, mischievous and excited to be alive. Everything amazes them. Sometimes I think that teachers try to suppress this and drug children so that they don’t have to do what was done years ago when little boys brought frogs and worms to school and dipped their classmates’ pigtails in ink: teach with patience and care. In addition to this, some parents are all too eager to agree without researching what they are putting into their child’s brain and little body.
Parents are frustrated and tired from the rat race that our lives can be; most carry the stress of guilt that they are not spending enough time with their children. Unfortunately as long as people need and want more money to buy more things it will worsen, as they spend more hours at work or invest more time in a better education. I just don’t see half the world’s mothers rushing to the boss’s office to quit their jobs and be home with their families. That’s the awful reality.
