Parental Survival and the Hyperactive Child

Abstract

If you are the mother of a youngster victim of the hyperactive child syndrome, you need to have certain resources, qualities, and characteristics if you are to survive. You need, for example, the wisdon of a Solomon, the patience of a Job, the physical stamina of a stevedore, and the calm and control of a saint. You will also need some information, some support and understanding from others, and a refuge to which to flee when you have been pushed to the ragged-edge of your endurance and coping. These are the basics, but as your hyperactive child moves along the path of childhood, the additional things you need to be will become readily apparent. You will feel elation with an accomplishment, near despair when your efforts seem abortive, and through all, an overwhelming fatigue and exhaustion. Some will try to understand and to help; others will not even try. Indeed, you will suffer subtle and oblique comments suggestive of the thought that some shortcoming in your mothering ability has caused the problem. Any confidence you had as a mother will be shaken each day. And, as if it were not enough to live and be mother to a difficult child who resists your efforts, you will find yourself in serious contention with your husband and, perhaps, other members of your family. You will feel isolation and live with the suspicion that you are, in some way, a slightly defective mother.