Recent Comments

Congratulations!

And the pictures of the construction/mining equipment are awesome.. (esp. since I am in the federal construction industry.)

I saw a post on Taylor's facebook page from David Wegener that I thought was very thoughtful. I'll add one simple thing to it that has been a blessing in both my marriage and my life as I have applied its simple truth to the best of my abilities... "Do all things without grumbling or complaining." Philippians 2:14.

Thank you, dear Michael and Jessica! Love,

Lots of towns have places to buy inexpensive cars and great meat (and we do love Rice Farms meat). My point was that one reason is plenty to keep us here.

Love,

A few months ago my wife read Bringing up Bebe (the book cited by the author of the linked article) and she loved it. It provides exactly the kind of outsider's perspective on our culture of child-rearing that so helpfully points out the things that Americans do that are just plain crazy. And it sounds like it's hilarious, too. Another gem from the book is that French parents know their children will face dangers, obstacles and frustrations as adults; because of this, French parents believe that it is a disservice to coddle their children, or shield them from natural adversities when they're children, because that won't prepare a child for real life. The phrase they use to express that is something like "If a child plays with knives, he might cut himself, but he won't die."

As the father of a child with ADHD I thought I should comment.

For about 15 years now we have been on the receiving end of advice ranging from encouraging and empathetic to rude and completely ignorant in regards to how best to raise our child. Obviously we are rotten parents who refuse to discipline and offer no structure. Yes, sarcasm. Nobody and I mean nobody can understand what it is like to have a child with ADHD, real ADHD. Is it overdiagnosed? It could be. It could be something in the water we drink or the food we eat, I don't know. I wholeheartedly agree that many kids just need proper authority exercised and yes, structure and Godly discipline. The danger with an article like this, however, is that it gives most people the idea that ADHD is not really anything more than parents being bad parents.

I say this because already today my wife has been told maybe we should "move to France", you know; where people know how to parent better.

I caution other christians to be wary of getting up on a high horse and lower ADHD to simply bad parenting. It is bad enough to have struggled to care for and try to understand our child's problem on top of regular childrearing issues only to have insult added to injury by folks who have no clue of what it is like to live with it. "Hey, I read an article about this, it must be bad parenting." It sounds silly but we have experienced it time and again.

ADHD may be overdiagnosed, just be careful not to paint with too broad a brush.