Volume 2, #11, May 2004

Book Review

Moms with ADD - A Self-Help Manual
by Christine Adamec

Review by Kathleen Nadeau, Ph.D.

What better way to celebrate Mother's Day than with a book review for you hard-working mothers with ADHD. Raising kids with ADHD is a challenge enough, and when we mothers have ADHD too - well, it seems to me we should lobby for a Moms with ADD Mother's Day on at least a monthly basis!

Barring that, however, what we need is help to make our job less challenging, which is exactly what Chris Adamec, a mother with ADHD herself, set out to do.

Have any special Mother's Day wishes? Chris included a list of mother's wishes in her first chapter, asking women, "If you could make a magic wish related to your ADD (and can't wish it were gone), what would you wish?"

• For people to understand I don't have to be a walking calendar to be a wonder person.
• That I could be less hard on myself.
• That I had a link to my hard drive while I sleep, so I could download all the creative thoughts that come to me at night when I sleep.
• That my children's father believed it existed at all.
• That I could steer my ADD son through school to avoid the scars school left on me.

Some wishes are positive, others poignant, still others very realistic. What would your wishes be as a mom with ADHD this Mother's Day?

Adamec doesn't offer any one-size fits all answers, but instead gives suggestions and advice from many sources. One of the most enjoyable things about the book is her ADHD-friendly sprinkling of quotes and comments:

"I read somewhere for a mom with ADD, having children is like having a freight train running through your head!"

"If I could remember your name, I'd ask if you've seen my keys."

With humor and a practical approach, and reasonable expectations, Adamec leads the overwhelmed, sometimes despairing mother with ADHD to slow down, smell the roses (even if they're dried out because she forgot to water them), take stock of the good in life and quit beating up on herself for not living up to some June Cleaver image.

Being a mom with ADHD is never easy, but with tips from Moms with ADD it will be less overwhelming and a lot more fun.

So here's to all you moms with ADHD - have a wonderful Mother's Day - make a wonderful wish and hope it comes true, and if we can't arrange for a monthly day for Moms with ADHD, let's all look for a support group where we can laugh, share, and celebrate together - a room full of women who can say with all sincerity, "I know just what you mean!"

Moms with ADD by Christine A. Adamec
Dallas, TX: Taylor Trade Publishing
224 pp. $14.95
ISBN 0-87833-175-1

Available now through June 20, 2004 from ADDvance at 10% off to NCGI members. Order on this website www.ncgiadd.org.

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