Too Much ADHD in the House

Last Wednesday marked the first day of school in our town. In our house that means four kids fighting for the shower, hairdryer, and scrambling to get out of the house on time.

Since I’m at home this semester and working an internship, there are four kids all trying to get ready and get to different places at different times. My brother leaves for his high school first; ten minutes later my sister leaves for a different high school; twenty minutes after that, I leave for work; and five minutes after that my youngest brother leaves for middle school. Did I mention that we only have one shower? And three of the four of us have ADHD? Needless to say it’s quite an interesting morning routine.

My sister gets the first shower, because she takes the longest to get ready, and she’s the only one who actually gets up on time every day without being woken up six times. After that we’re supposed to have a schedule where everyone gets 15 minutes in the bathroom, but with all the alarm clock issues in the house it’s a challenge to finish on time.

My mom makes sure we all get up on time, and then she makes breakfast and lunch while we scramble around and bicker over mirror space upstairs. Another problem: the wiring in our house is a little strange; if you blow dry your hair while mom’s using the toaster it blows a fuse thus resetting all the clocks. We’ve lived here long enough that we remember to ask before starting the hair dryer… most of the time.

When we get downstairs the table’s set with four places (although we don’t all eat at the same time) and my mom has three lunches packed and in the fridge (my high school brother buys lunch). I’m convinced that the only way we make it out the door every day is mom’s super-organized system. Even if we are late and scrambling her organization makes up for lost time.

After my brother leaves, then my mom leaves to take my sister to school, it’s just me and my youngest brother home for 20 minutes. Sometimes ADHD distractions take over and we look up and realize that mom will be home in 5 minutes and we’re not ready to leave yet. I run upstairs to finish getting ready, and if he’s not too busy he puts my coffee into a travel mug, or gets my lunch out so I won’t leave without it.

We’ve only done this three times so far and we’re still trying to work out a few minor kinks in the system. There’s yelling and banging on the door if someone takes too long in the shower, and my middle school brother was almost late on his first day. I guess we know who he’ll be taking after; running into school one minute before the bell rings. Like ADHD sister, like ADHD brother!