If you have a kid starting school this year, you’re probably super excited! Your baby is going to make new friends, learn new things, and grow into their own little person. They’ll probably run home and tell you how fun their first day was, tell you about all the friends they made, and all about everything they learned! If you have a kid with ADHD…. it might be a little different for you.

We did pre-k 3 in 2017 and it was a tough year. Thank the LORD for her teacher during that time. She was a literal angel. I think I actually cried when school was over because she couldn’t be Grace’s teacher again! Grace had a really hard time doing pretty much anything you’re supposed to do. Listening? Nope. Patience? Nope. Respecting adults? Nope. Sitting still? Nope. Thinking before doing? HARD. NOPE. & don’t even get me started on making friends. Grace wasn’t able to play normal with other kids. She couldn’t focus on one thing for too long before getting bored or wanting to play something else. She also had absolutely no impulse control. As soon as someone upset her she lashed out. At the end of the year her teacher said “You know, have you thought about getting her evaluated for ADHD?”

I got ahold of a children’s psychiatrist and they got her in right away. I’m pretty sure he wanted to call a priest at our first appointment, but he was so kind. “You’re daughter has been here one hour and I can tell you she is showing every sign of a child with ADHD/ODD. Let’s get her evaluation papers and figure out what’s going on.” Honestly, before I had Grace, I thought ADHD was some made up disorder given to bad kids: but I was SO wrong. Two weeks later we were given an ADHD diagnoses, but she was too young (at 4) to be “officially diagnosed” with ODD.

The doctor mentioned meds right away and I was totally against it. So, I did as much research as I could and tried a few things. First we tried switching her diet. We eliminated sugars, dyes, processed foods, dairy. Didn’t work. Then we tried CBD oil! It just wasn’t enough. Plus, the prices were outrageous! Grace was about to start pre-k 4 and we decided maybe we’d give meds a try. At first we tried Adderall, but it made her a hundred times worse. Her doctor wanted to switch to another medicine, but I declined. We got her into a children’s play therapist and things started to get a little better at home. Then she started her pre-k 4. The worst few weeks of our lives.

Teachers are supppsed to be warm hearted and loving, right? My poor kid drew the short end of the stick and was stuck with someone who I’m sure had NO heart. Pre-k 4 was only 3.5 hours long. The third day I was told my child was making the teacher tired and was impossible to teach because she was so defiant. She insisted my five year old go onto medication to “make everyone’s time at school easier”. (Which we did put her back on a liquid Ritalin, she did great! But, we took her back off when we pulled her out of school.) Comments like this lasted for about 4 weeks until we decided to pull her from school. Our daughter is extremely smart. She was ahead of everyone in her class and she loved to learn. She came home and told us she “hated school and didn’t want to go back”. We said that was enough. If someone wasn’t willing to work with our child as much as we were, then it wasn’t worth it. She took a year off of school and was doing SO MUCH BETTER! Of course she was still her sassy self, but she was almost a different kid.

Fast forward to the first day of Kindergarten. I was TERRIFIED. She was going to be awful. She wasn’t going to make friends. Her teacher was going to be unwilling to help. I was so wrong! She has definitely been having some tough days again, but she has a great teacher! Instead of getting calls EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. about my child, I get told “it’ll get better!”. It’s such a relief to have someone so caring and kind towards our daughter. When you have someone who understands that your child isn’t just being “bad” or “defiant” on purpose, it makes the biggest difference! We have a meeting tomorrow morning for a behavioral plan and a 504 plan, which her teacher actually recommended to me! I’m so excited for this new school year. I really think this is her time to shine!