We have a kid (actually probably a few kids) at church who are classified as ADD. They need extra attention at times. They crave attention. Unfortunately their annoying behavior tends make people not want to be around them…which is the exact opposite of what they want.
Many times society is too hasty to place 3 letter acronymns on kids, they don’t realize that (gasp!) in fact their child’s misbehavior could be the result of bad parenting. “Don’t blame my child, he’s ADD!” I’m on the opinion that some kids need a good beating every once and a while. Time out? Being Grounded? Those might be ok at times. But spankings do work.
We never had ADD or ADHD when I was growing up. That’s not to say that it doesn’t exist. It does exist. But I think now we are too hasty to label the kids with some disorder, which takes the burden of discipline off of the parents. We dope them up with ritalin and at the same time let them play the action packed video games which tend to magnify the problem. Am I totally off base here? Why has the classification of ADD skyrocketed over the past few years?
(And please note: I’m using the word “beating” in tongue and cheek mode here. I’m not advocating child abuse.)