Morning struggle (every day)

[cbustaylor]

Hello and thanks for listening. My 10 year old daughter has ADHD, on medication, and generally she is doing well. But the mornings are really tough for our family. She wakes by 6am, often before, ahead of everyone else. She watches tv or plays on an iPad quietly. But as the rest of us wake she has an energy that is not merely very high but she has real trouble listening, understanding the feelings and needs of others, or communicating in a calm manner. She just wants everything her way, although in an upbeat mood (not sullen or angry). But her energy is very chaotic and we haven’t found ways to contain or respond to it. She craves to be around people at that point but she’s so careless and thoughtless toward us that it is hard.

We don’t / can’t adjust her sleep. We have tried adjusting access to tv/iPad but didn’t seem to matter. She takes her pill at 7:30am, so this is prior to that. She isn’t good at feeding herself; so we try for breakfast as soon as we can. We are trying morning exercise/walks ASAP as that seems to be helpful, or at least we notice That without them this chaotic energy continues well into the day.

I’m always up for trying something. It’s been too many days in a row. We are too resigned to it and I’m realizing we need to get active again about helping all of us. Thank you for advice!!!

[Penny Williams]

I gamified the morning routine when my son was young and it worked like magic! I was shocked how well it worked. Here’s what I did:

Wake Up and Smell the Calmness

Penny
ADDitude Community Moderator, Parenting ADHD Coach, Podcaster & Author, Mom to teen w/ ADHD, LDs, and autism

[Penny Williams]

Here’s a photo of the actual card:
https://www.parentingadhdandautism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/morningRoutine.jpg

Penny
ADDitude Community Moderator, Parenting ADHD Coach, Podcaster & Author, Mom to teen w/ ADHD, LDs, and autism

[Author]

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