Forever Late?
| May 19, 2010 | Posted by Brenda under Time Management |
Yesterday my daughter had to go to the hospital for outpatient surgery. She had to be there by noon and I had to drive her because she couldn’t drive herself home.
She got into the shower at 11:30; the drive to the hospital takes 20 minutes. Already I knew we were going to be late.
No, let me rephrase that. I knew we were going to be late, period, because it’s the way she is.
Like most people with ADHD, she has no real sense of time, especially when it comes to judging how long it will take her to do something.
If your kids are young enough to still rely on you to get them going, you may have some control over this kind of thing.
You can make sure they get up early enough and monitor them to keep them on track and on task.
At some point, however, you lose that control.
My daughter is 22; she is responsible for getting herself up and moving and taking care of herself. If she is late, or misses something because she forgot or was too slow, she pays the consequences.
Right now, that’s a little hard to take, but it has to be done.
Just so you know, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Her brother and sister went through the same thing and now both are much more reliable about being on time.
Oh, we got to the hospital 10 minutes late and then had to wait 3 hours to go into surgery (and she’s fine). Why was I stressed?
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Awesome blog post, thanks for keeping me busy!
Story of my life… I get there late but have to wait anyway. As a 24 year old with ADD I always wonder why I stress about being late when I already know it’s going to happen and that it rarely matters.
From my perspective, the additional stress and self-deprecation comes from the way that people seem to devalue my entire person based solely on my inability to arrive early… or on time. Over time, though, I have come to accept that I’m actually a pretty amazing and talented young women.
I am glad your daughter’s surgery went well and I hope she finds her way!
Congratulations on figuring out what an amazing and talented young woman you are! I wish that more people with ADHD could see their true potential and worth.
Thanks for the good wishes regarding my daughter. Right now she is OK; surgery went fine. Thank you!