What you say and how you say it really does matter.

You never really pay attention to what you are saying to your child, or how they are interpreting what you say, until they say something that makes you think or breaks your heart.

As most of you know my son is ADHD and has been on his medication for a while now, the entire school year, and that I typically don't give it to him on the weekends. However, when he has something going on, or we are going somewhere that he needs to be calmer for, I will give him his morning dose. I've never really paid attention to my choice in words when I tell him he needs to take it for that weekend day. I usually say something like "Take your medicine so you aren't all crazy." Then there are days where he is off he wall hyper, more than usual, and I say "Do I need to give you your medicine?"

My son has never indicated that I am choosing the wrong words when it comes to his medication. That is, until this morning. I almost forgot to give him his medication before I dropped him off at school. Thank God I carry extras of both of our daily medications in my purse for those "just in case" moments and this morning was one of them. I pulled the little medicine case out of my purse and before I even open it my son quickly says "I promise I will be good!" It took me a second to realize why he was saying it.

Without meaning to I was making my son feel like his medication was a punishment for acting extremely hyper due to his ADHD. It broke my heart! I never want him to feel like that! EVER! So I tried to explain to him that I know he can behave, but the medicine is meant to help him stay calm and focused in school so he can keep doing as great as he has been. That if we had known he needed the medicine to help him he wouldn't have gotten in so much trouble in the past years of school.

My son is perfect and his hyper ways are fine when he is at home. His medication is to help him in school and to help him stay calm and focused enough to succeed in school and do well. I pray that one day he gets to a point in his life where he no longer needs his medication and he can learn how to make his ADHD work for him and stay focused without it.  I really need to watch what I say and how I say it. My son should never feel punished for having ADHD or anything else that is completely out of his control!