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23 Comments: Calm and Connected Sweepstakes: Attend a PTS Coaching Workshop Session for Free!

1. The best thing I take away from this experience of sheltering at home is the opportunity to spend more quality time with my 9-year-old daughter and my husband. We slowed down our pace, no rushing all day long has been a blessing. We have enjoyed family movies, cooking together, developing schedules, organising house chores, meditating, monitoring her school tasks and progress which has been very demanding but also rewarding, and we have been able to connect with her more deeply, and to see her grow up at all levels. Now we’re having family walks everyday, and as a mother and a teacher I’ve got the time to learn more about ADHD without a hurry.

2. We have been able to use this time to really slow down. We are (I am especially) always on the go. There is always somewhere to be and schedules to stick to. While having a regular schedule and routine is extremely helpful for my family, having a large amount of unstructured time has really given us the opportunity to just be together. Nowhere to go, nowhere we need to be, no rushing, no running late, less frustration, stress, and fighting. It has been very freeing. It’s amazing to take a bicycle ride around the block with our kids and see so many people spending time outside with their loved ones. A blessing in disguise!

3. Being able to spend more time with the kids is invaluable. They love being with mom and dad and get to feel more connected with each other.

4. During this time at home. I have enjoyed more time with our daughter. We have had more family time. By having my husband around more(he is a workaholic usually) my husband has finally able to see the teachers, the special ed teacher, and the neuropsychologist weren’t lying, making things up or don’t like our daughter. He is finally able to see the affect ADHD has on our daughter’s learning and social interactions (now only via computer due to my broken immune system)
   I have been able to see that my daughter can learn much better without a whole class of children distracting her. She has a defined math learning disability. Both ADHD and Math learning disabilities are common with children whom were adopted and had substance abuse in utero. But when distractions are cut out and having the ability to search up the lesson to another way of teaching if my daughter isn’t grasping the original lesson is a blessing having her home and my ability to change things up if she isn’t grasping the original way.
   We have learned how to make cheese at home, while learning about fractions and the science of cheesemaking , started plant experiments that will end with food this summer. We have had time to learn which local birds visit our yard. We have had many hands on learning activities and it has been a blessing for our whole family.
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5. What I hope to remember when this is all over is how my 2 daughters and I had the time to slow down and do things like take longs walks/runs/hike as well as bake,and commit to writing in a gratitude journal. I want to remember that my 10 and 12 year olds and I made masks for my friend and her staff working in Long Island, NY. I want to remember how anxious and scared we all are for the future but how we try everyday to turn that energy positive and stay present through meditation and gratitude. Thank you for offering this opportunity to parents, I am sure whoever receives it will benefit greatly.

6. There have been a lot of little silver linings in all this. Enjoying the sunshine with the kids has been great. We had recently bought a new house before all of this happened and we have a patio that the kids have spent so much time enjoying. They play outside in our backyard, blow bubbles, meet with their grandparents at a distance, and they have recently discovered soccer. We go out for bike rides and take walks. They do of course fight and bicker, but it also seems that they have never been closer. My husband and I do struggle with balance so that we can get our work done. But we are so fortunate that we are able to work from home at all.

7. With my 9 year old at home. I have been able to see and experience first hand how smart he is. I am impressed of the projects they work on. They are wealth orkknv at a level beyond a 9 year old. I also have been experiencing frustration of working at home with a child with ADHD. Although he eventually gets most of the work done, his time management skills leave little to fine desired. He likes to listen to music while doing his school work but is easily distracted. He days drag on until 5/6/7pm with al hai work not done. This has caused lots of tension between us. It is hard to separate mom and teacher..child and student.

8. Since I now work from home (I’m a teacher) and my husband always works from home, we can go camping earlier than usual. This is HUGE for our son (8-years old, was supposed to be evaluated the first week of DL). Camping gives us all the fresh air we need, helps us slow down, explore new things…like stargazing with our new telescope…and just relaxing. The change of pace is great for us all. We do end up plugged in since we have to work, too, but we can easily shut off the hot spot as soon as we’re done for the day. For us, camping is refreshing and quality family time. (I’ve learned that only packing neon colored t-shirts helps me keep track of where he is when I’m not with him…or I can’t keep up with him!)

9. I have a teenaged son with ADHD. My silver lining is that with so much time together, we’re able to share more the little things that bring us joy – more than when things were so busy and pressures of school and work were greater. Small conversations happen that share the love of his pet guinea pig, talk about a funny shows, the best lemonade brands, or even a list of “to-dos” for his online schooling. This time together is reinforcing the loving relationship that he was turning away from as a teenager seeking independence. With this gift of time together, we’re finding a new balance though enjoying the little things.

10. One thing we have learned through this pandemic and staying at home way too much is the value of communication. Since we have to slow down and breathe more, we’ve had more time to have deeper conversations. With 2 ADHD teen aged boys in the house, communication has been hard in the past between them due to some trauma that occurred, and I’m slowing seeing how it’s how I say things that can make or break the day and that I have to model that communication which in the heat of the moment is so hard.

11. Wow. There are so many more positives than I would have ever anticipated. My daughter 11 years old, hormonal, ADHD, anxiety, depression, autism, ODD, sensory processing disorder, conduct disorder has changed our thoughts on many things, but especially homeschooling. My fiance was against it because he felt like she would lose time to socialize and to develop lacking social skills. Since we have been home though that has changed. She is go the first time socializing with her peers with confidence and without all the anxieties that came with. She is actually excelling academically and socially. She does not have as many kept downs and is more willing to work on her school work. The changes I have seen in the past couple months exceeds the changes we have seen in the past three years. We have argued with the school for the past two years that she needs to be in a smaller classroom setting and they refused to listen and now she is doing so well and even grasping concepts that were difficult 3 months ago. Her teachers have even commented that she has more humor and personality in zoom meetings and discussions and that they never realized how worry she really is until now. Other students even talk to her in the discussion whereas at school they avoided her. She came out of her she’ll and even submitted a video of herself singing for the virtual talent show. I am more concerned about next school year and the regression we will see if she goes back to the physical school than I am about the remainder of the year. Has anyone had similar experiences? Also, she is more willing to talk to me about stuff and to try new things. Of course, we have bad days still, but who doesn’t.

12. The slow evenings! We’re enjoying more family time after dinner rather than the rush of getting ready for the next day.

13. The one positive thing I will take away from sheltering at home is the realization that when stressed, we as a family can “roll up our sleeves” and step up to make changes. And, when one of us is down or struggling, the others pick up the slack or step in with words of encouragement. Now THAT’s a system I am proud to be a part of!

14. I enjoy taking long daily walks with my 2 kids (10-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son) while exploring the amazing plants and animals around us using the Seek app I recently found: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app
    I’m learning right alongside them which is a true joy!

15. One positive thing I will take away from sheltering at home is seeing how quickly my 3 sons (6,4,2) are growing up and seeing them do some of their firsts I would have missed had I been at work and them at school/daycare. I am truly grateful I am to have this time with them, no matter how hard it is some days.

16. There are so many positives for our family of 4 from being at home together during this time of isolation. Having the time to make lunch for my 15yo daughter and then go for a ride with her at lunch time. To work on jigsaw puzzles together – all the while talking and getting to know each other through this challenging time of hormones and new medication for recently diagnosed (Nov 2019) ADHD (no longer feeling the need of anti-anxiety meds). We have also played some games and been enjoying a quiz show together after dinner – we weren’t previously coming together for long at dinner time. The time that my girls would spend on the bus is now spent catching up on that lack of sleep that teens generally suffer. Both of them are benefitting from less anxiety and feel they are able to focus better on their studies. So many wins!

17. One positive thing I will take away from this experience of sheltering at home is being acutely aware of how quickly my babies are growing up and being present to how grateful I am to have this time with them, no matter how hard it is some days.

18. More time to spend with my new family and my step son to build a relationship. Even though it is rough we are slowly working toward harmony in the household.

19. One thing myself and my family will take away from all this craziness is it has showed us how to slow down! As a family with two very active boys, active in general but also in school sports and many other things, we are always on the go, never time to just relax and be with eachother. Being home all this time we have learned how to just relax at home with eachother, learning new things about eachother and finding new ways to entertain ourselves! In a way, I am enjoying this time with my family!

20. My silver lining is that my boys are at an age where they want to be around mom and dad. They want to play with us, and they genuinely like our company. It’s sweet when they ask to do things with us. It’s so much better than having a child who is at an age where their parents are not cool or they are too cool for their parents. I like that when I have time we can be together and have fun and we all want to be there.

21. Even though it’s crazy with both parents working from home, there have been many things we’ve enjoyed: Family walks, time spent in the backyard playing games, family movie nights, learning life skills, etc. It’s easy to get caught up in the “what we’re missing” but there are a lot of gains too.

22. I have twin boys, 12 years old who are complete opposites. As a family, we have learned to be more patient and understanding; compassionate and appreciative of each other’s differences. The boys have found ways to work together as well as understanding, respecting the other’s need for space.

23. My kids and I (9 and 7 – one diagnosed, one in evaluation) are both learning how capable they really are. With the time at home, I have been able to give them the time and space to cook more (and fully clean up) on their own without needing to take over to “get it done” in a more timely fashion to be able to get somewhere or move onto something else we need to do. They are responsible for their own learning (with help when asked) and have stepped up to follow instructions and navigate this new online learning environment. I’ve been so proud to see how they have stretched and grown in this time and it’s been so fun to see how proud of themselves they can be when they accomplish something that before only mom or dad would do.