Blog Names We Didn’t Use
Picking a title to describe what it’s like to live with attention deficit while raising a teen who has it, too, sets the wheels spinning for this parenting blogger.
After ADDitude Magazine invited me to blog for them, the editor and I discussed a blog title. “Two in the Fast Lane,” she suggested, “when a mom and a teen are both wired for speed.” Hmm, intriguing, I thought. I had been wanting to do something more along the lines of “Awesomeness Development Directive,” since I’m all over re-naming ADD something more interesting and positive and less…well, less “disorderly.” But Julie hit a nerve with her suggestion — specifically, the nerve that lights up whenever a cool car goes by.
She couldn’t have known, from our brief introduction, that my son, whom I shall call Enzo in this blog, has had a love affair with wheels since before he could walk. (He would turn the stroller over and spin them.) He reads Road and Track when he should be reading history, watches Top Gear when he should be watching Spanish TV, and while his friends are playing Call of Duty, he’s playing Dirt. In his religion, the annual car show is High Holy Days.
I loved Julie’s idea for a theme. Cars are not only a great metaphor for ADD, (as in the “Ferrari brain with Chevy brakes” meme, but according to my new favorite book, Driven to Distraction, “People with ADD like cars.”
But her title didn’t work with me, for one main reason: because of our ADD, the two of us can’t ever seem to get into the fast lane — or for that matter, drive in a straight line. Our curious brains keep us turning down side roads.
I thought of a whole bunch of other potential column names:
>> The Fast and the Curious
>> Keys to the Ferrari
>> Switching Gears
>> High Octane Fools
>> Red Means Go
>> Lamborghini Minivan
>> Oops, I Put it In Reverse Again, and
>> Always Driving Donuts
But in the end, Julie liked “Life in the Fast Brain,” and I liked it, too. And because of said fast brain — I’m thinking ahead here and probably taking on way too much — I feel compelled to go ahead and make “Awesomeness Development (and Happiness) Directive” a thing, too.
