Family Strategies for Living Successfully with ADHD:
1. Elicit help from your spouse and work as a team.
2. Educate yourself about the disorder by reading as much as you can about ADHD in adults and children.
3. Knowing that ADHD is part of the family mix, begin to shift expectations of yourself and your child. Expect that there will be more chaos, disorganization and tension in your home.
4. Get babysitting help even if you are at home.
5. Take parenting classes to acquire specific parenting tools.
6. Realize that suggestions from well meaning friends and relatives may work for their (non-ADHD) children, but not for yours.
7. Make sure that both parent and child’s ADHD is optimally treated.
8. Hire someone to do homework with your child. This will knock down the stress level immediately for the entire family.
9. Give yourself time outs when you feel you’re about to lose control of your temper; teach your child the same tactics. Ask your spouse to take over when you feel overwhelmed.
10. Simplify your life in all areas: learn to say NO, or get into the habit of responding to outside requests by saying, “I’ll think about it and get back to you.” This tactic forces you to think carefully about the commitment before jumping in. Stop over-committing.
11. Delegate chores to each family member - don’t take it all on yourself.
12. Spend time with each child, where the focus is only on FUN.
13. Learn to see the positive traits in all family members and remember to verbalize them often.
14. Spend time away with your spouse, friends or alone to re-charge.
15. Hire a Professional Organizer to get systems in place. Often times, children and adults with ADHD don’t have a natural understanding of organizational methods; a professional organizer can be extremely helpful in teaching such strategies.
16. Consider hiring an ADD coach to help with prioritizing, time management, organizing your day, etc.
17. Whenever possible, hire outside help with such chores such as house cleaning, lawn upkeep, etc.
