I’m a neurotypical, type-A rule follower – my husband and sons are anything but. How do we make it work? By embracing a funny, creative world of ADHD and difference
A typical weeknight evening in my house might go something like this. I help my nine-year-old son prepare for a spelling test. I sit on the floor and say “territory”, and watch as he lies on his back with his legs in the air and writes it down on a whiteboard next to him, eyes closed, with his left hand. He is right-handed. My seven-year-old is wearing a tank top, regardless of the season, and doing chin-ups using the slats under his loft bed, pulling himself over in a flip through his arms. He interrupts the spelling session to say, “Did you know that the tallest person in the world also has the biggest hands?” He then talks continuously about any topic that crosses his mind during his work out. Meanwhile, my husband, finally done after another day working at the table in our bedroom that serves as his home office, is wearing a top hat from our kids’ old magician’s outfit and playing the piano. He plays by ear. He calls out, “Hey, did you recognise that – that one was Dizzee Rascal!”
It’s like being in a room with Jack Black and Robin Williams and Jim Carrey doing their standup all at once. It’s chaotic, frenetic and hilarious. It’s life with three people who think outside the box, all the time, because very often they have forgotten the box or lost the box or just found another box much more interesting. And it has made me – a neurotypical, type-A rule-follower, squarely-in-the-box operator, former spelling bee champion and perpetual list-maker – into a much more fluid person and creative thinker, willing to let go of my rigid routines. My family have shown me the beauty and freedom of thinking differently.
