Our fourteen year old son asked if he could take our one year old granddaughter outside to play. “That would be wonderful,” I told him as I was trying to cook supper and she really wanted to go outside. Happily they went out to swing and enjoy the mild spring weather.

About fifteen minutes later my adult daughter came walking in the door, unexpectedly as I thought I was going to take my granddaughter home after our visit, carrying her crying daughter. She looked rather upset and asked me why her daughter was outside alone. “Where is Lane?” I asked, “Wasn’t he outside with her?” No, she was sitting in the yard by the swings crying. I gave my granddaughter a kiss and a hug to help her stop crying, told my daughter how sorry I was and headed outside to find my son.

I ran towards the pond first, yelling his name. I ran towards the back hayfield and even let out a few loud whistles for him. I continued to search for probably five minutes, to no avail, he was not to be found. I came back into the house fuming, and assured my daughter that he would be disciplined when he showed up. You may remember from one of my previous blogs that he suffers from severe ADHD, so you may surmise that I should have known better than to let him take a toddler outside.

However you may also remember that Lane is a genius, he is fourteen years old, he is enrolled in two classes this semester at the community college, and he already has 13 credits there. He doesn’t take medication for it because it causes his head to feel “fuzzy,” causes anger issues, and takes away his appetite which is bad because he just hit 100 lbs. He’s also the only child here on the farm that can precisely operate the Bobcat, the John Deere TLB (tractor, loader, and backhoe) and the White tractor with the hay mower attached. He came home from a day long, teen shooting competition with the 2nd place trophy. The point I’m trying to make is that he’s usually pretty accountable for his actions.

This incident brought flashbacks of a similar incident involving my eighteen year old daughter when she was about fifteen. She suffers from ADD, Pituitary Dwarfism, etc. Anyway, she offered to watch our four year old son as he swam in shallow water while I sat in the shade with the baby. A short time later a man, whom I had never met before, came up to me with my crying son. He indicated that he had “fished” him out of water over his head. “My daughter was watching him,” I plead my case. “Yes,” he said, “I watched her swim out to the dock with some other teens.”

Please be cautious, no matter how responsible you may think your ADHD or ADD child is better safe than sorry. It is just so difficult for them to stay focused. My son said he thought his older sister had come out to play with our granddaughter so he went to look for snakes-his passion. Apparently she stepped outside briefly; he mistakenly assumed she was taking over, but failed to confirm that with her. We continue to work on our communication skills around here.

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