My ADHD Kid's School Social Life

Yesterday, I went from feeling the love as I described in my ADHD parenting blog, to feeling some pretty darn awful pain for my sweet, lovable, vulnerable child.

Don, Aaron, Natalie and I were all in the living room last night, and Nat was talking about school.

“Who do you like the most in your class?” I asked. She never talks about the social side of school—who she plays with at recess, who said what to whom.

She threw out a girl’s name I didn’t recognize, and then quickly backtracked. “She always says, ‘Don’t, Natalie. Natalie, stop it!’”

Then came the killer blow.

“One time in the lunchroom, Will said, ‘Do you like Natalie?’

‘No.’

‘No.’

‘No.’

‘No.’

‘Everybody said. ‘No’.”

The school nurse called a couple of weeks ago. Natalie was in the lunchroom, and was crying. A teacher took her to the nurse’s office. She had a sore throat or a headache or something, and couldn’t stop crying. She wanted to go home.

I’m so glad the nurse was able to reach me, and that I did, in fact, take her home. Imagine Natalie going back into the lunchroom to sit with those kids. Going outside for recess. Returning to class. Picturing it breaks my heart.

“Don’t worry about those kids. You have so many other friends.” I said.

Nat’s incredibly resilient. She’s sailed into school quite happily every day since.

I don’t know how she does it. I hurt so much I can hardly breathe.