An ADD ADHD Family

My family was all together today. Stephen, our oldest son, walks into the house, empties the contents of his pockets, keys and odd crumpled up pieces of notes on the class family room table. Then he walks into the study (his old bedroom) and sits down with Dennis, aka Dad . They start some sort of project on the computer, but there's trouble with the internet connection. Dennis walks out of the study into the kitchen and makes coffee…except…dip and chip (even though it is only 10:00 am) seems like a good idea to him. So out comes the avocados, the wooden mixing bowl, the masher, and various spices. The sour cream is next, but it is in the back of the frig, so out comes all the stuff in front of it. Then Stephen calls. Dennis runs back down the hall into the study. The coffee is still perking and the guacamole contents are waiting. There's a problem with some wire that runs something to the room. I hear the garage door open. The front door is also left open. We haven't had a car in the garage since 30 B.C. (before children). I hear them. They are looking for a ladder. The holiday decoration boxes advance out onto the driveway along with the camping equipment, a couple of bikes and some unidentified flotsam and jetsam. The ladder emerges and makes it's way down the hall to the attic opening, which is in a closet. The closet contents spill into the hall. Our two big Rhodesian Ridgebacks take this opportunity to practice hurdle jumping. I trip over a tool chest in the entry hall. The front door flings open again. It's our daughter, Erin, with her basket of laundry and her German short-haired pointer. Now ALL the dogs are going nuts. She places the laundry in the entry hall because she's not finished unloading her car. Matt calls, he's on his way.

This is the profile of an active, creative family. Our family. The house is a mess. Projects are started and left sitting where they lie. Yet, the members of this house have all created significant contributions to the world. They have international businesses, solved interesting problems, lived in interesting places, started college and created functional, running businesses before the age of eighteen. Their profiles would have been labeled ADHD had any of them followed a traditional educational route. But none did. Not even, exactly, Dad. SO…what are we doing to this 'epidemic' of creative kids we label ADD/ADHD, (most without testing,) drug and confine to an uncreative, ordinary education? Eventually, the mess in my house will be cleaned up. My family remains creative. I feel saddened about the children we label and medicate, instead of giving them a chance to create in their own way, in their timeframes and find their own particular form of brilliance.