Why I'm Not Excited about My Child Going Back to School
Other kids may be happy about starting the new school year, but my daughter with ADHD cries every day as she sees the X’s on our calendar getting closer to her first day of school.
As I walk into Target, I immediately see the gigantic “Back To School” signs and can practically smell all of the #2 pencils. I see kids with their parents going over their school supply list, making sure they got the correct number of notebooks and folders and the right brand of markers. The kids I see look happy and excited about doing their back-to-school shopping and do you know what? So do their parents. Without realizing it, I am staring at them and smiling, too. I can’t help it. Seeing the bright, smiling faces of today’s youth excited about going to school makes me happy, but my smile quickly fades when I am brought back to reality by my seven-year-old letting out a sigh and asking me, “Are we done yet?”
My child has ADHD and, for us, the words “back to school” create the opposite effect. Instead of excitedly counting down the days until the first day of school and being happy about starting another school year, my child has been crying every day as she sees the X’s on our calendar getting closer and closer to August 18, begging me not to make her go back to school.
My child is very smart, sometimes too smart, and I am not just saying that because I am her mother. My child was talking in full sentences before she could walk and she hasn’t stopped since. She says some of the most profound things I have ever heard, and she thinks outside the box. She is one of the most imaginative and creative people I know. Although her teachers have recognized these characteristics in her, they are not going to be measured, graded, or accounted for in school. She isn’t going to get A’s in Creativity or Thoughtfulness, that’s for sure.
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