You want to be the best role model possible for your children, but having ADHD makes being organized, efficient, and on-task more difficult. Chances are you know how heritable the disorder is – upwards of 74%. So, there is a significant chance that one or more of your children may experience ADHD symptoms throughout their lives.
By modeling effective ADHD coping skills for your children, you can help them navigate any symptoms of the disorder they may encounter. You can be their role model because you’ve learned how to survive and thrive despite having an ADHD diagnosis.
This post will discuss some valuable tips on being an effective role model for your children. Though this post is geared towards adults with an ADHD diagnosis, it presents useful information that any parent can benefit from reading!
So, let’s jump in.
ADHD: A Quick Breakdown of Symptoms in Adults
People with ADHD suffer from persistent cognitive and behavioral issues that affect their ability to make and follow through on plans, stay organized and on task, and cause people with the diagnosis to be prone to impulsive behavior and mood swings. Hyperactivity, heavily associated with ADHD in children, appears less frequently as a symptom in adults.
Like many mental disorders, ADHD presents itself differently in different people, and, as a result, some cases are mild, and others are severe. Some people don’t receive a diagnosis until they are adults because their experiences with ADHD cause them to fly under the radar or result in a misdiagnosis.
Also, like many mental disorders, early intervention is critical for developing life-long coping skills and resiliency. That’s why you must model how to cope and manage ADHD symptoms successfully – your effective modeling behavior helps show your kids the best ways to manage and deal with ADHD symptoms. And, if they do not develop ADHD symptoms, you’ll be teaching them invaluable organizational skills that will benefit them later in life.
Parenting Tips for Adults with ADHD
Medication, therapy, and following organizational and behavioral strategies are the most effective ways to live with an ADHD diagnosis and be a model of success for your children. The following tips are intended to be supplemental and should be practiced alongside the clinically proven treatments for managing ADHD symptoms. These clinically proven treatments are ADHD medication and psychotherapy.
Organize Your Living Space
For many people, the cleanliness and organization of our living spaces reflect the organization of our inner space. If you want to better organize your mind, you should start with your home. Your home houses your body, which houses your mind. This bottom-up process helps us hone our organizational skills in the tangible world of things to better prepare us to tackle the intangible world of thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
Think Big Picture, Act Small Picture
To organize your living space and not get distracted, overwhelmed, and discouraged by the task, you must chunk the process up into tiny, manageable tasks. You know the big goal is to clean and organize your house, but you should frame it in smaller chunks to make the project much more manageable.
Start with a single room or even a closet, a set of drawers, or an armoire. Every significant journey is made of small, incremental steps forward.
Invite Your Children to Help Out
Get your children excited about the idea of helping you get organized. The process can be framed as a fun activity that you and your family can do together. Getting your children involved will teach them cleaning and organizational skills and allow them to feel involved in making life better for the whole family. It gives them a role that’s easy to perform and has tangible rewards.
Organize Your Inner Space
After your living space is organized, you’ll need to bring that same organizational fervor to your inner mind. There are several ways you can help organize your mind, better manage your time and strategically stay focused during work.
Make Lists and Keep a Schedule
If you have ADHD symptoms, staying on top of appointments, dates, times, and chores is hard enough to manage when it is just your schedule you have to plan for. Try adding a few kids into the mix, and the chaos can rapidly escalate. Making lists and keeping a schedule are great tools for staying on task and remaining focused, especially if you find it challenging to manage your time throughout the day.
Take advantage of planners and task management apps to help you stay focused and organized. If you have issues with executive function and struggle to balance your and your childrens’ schedules in your head, simply remove the burden of having to remember by outsourcing the job to technology.
Make Sure to Work Breaks Into Your Schedule
Taking regular breaks from a task is beneficial for productivity and helps you get things done. Disengaging from your work for a few minutes every hour or so can help reset your brain and help you come back stronger and more focused. It’s essential to take this time, so you don’t overwork yourself and spiral downwards toward burnout.
This leads us to our next point.
Prioritize Excercise In Your Daily Routine
This isn’t simply a good idea in general – there are proven benefits of exercise in helping people manage ADHD symptoms. Regular cardiovascular exercise addresses several symptoms of ADHD in adults and children alike. When you exercise, your body creates endorphins and neurotransmitters which help to:
- Reduce stress
- Reduce anxiety
- Reduce depression
- Improve memory
- Improve executive function
- Improve impulse control
- Increase levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor
Measure Your Progress in Steps, Not Leaps
Nobody is perfect, and change is hard. But, the fact that you are reading this means that you care about being a better parent. Lifelong patterns of behavior don’t change overnight. Little by little, you can take the necessary, incremental steps toward improving your external and internal organizational skills.
Take pride in the small victories and keep trying. You can be a hero to your child.
