1) On-Time? That’s a thing?
You’re never on time… like to ANYTHING. You are either fashionably late or awkwardly early. This is because you’re likely suffering from time blindness. Which means symptom number two will apply as well.
2) Schedules are just suggestions
I mean, right?! Psh, no one really takes a schedule seriously. It’s just there to be a general guideline… or at least that’s what you keep telling yourself when you change your schedule for the 4th time in a day. Like I mentioned above… Time blindness is a big sign you’re an ADHD mom. You are always over or underestimating the amount of time it takes to do something. Thereby needing to change your schedule because you keep running out of time.
3) You jump subjects as often as your kids
It’s cute when little kids go off on tangents… “Look a butterfly! I saw a butterfly on the playground one time, and Jimmy was hogging the slide and wouldn’t let anyone use it, so we had to tell Miss Teacher on him”… So adorable! Not so much when you do it. “I was changing sally’s diaper, and I don’t know what I should I cook for dinner”… Less adorable… but if you can follow a train of thought from dirty diaper to dinner without grossing yourself out… You’re def a mom with ADHD.
4) Little details don’t exist
I mean, they do actually exist… you just never notice them. Your mind moves so quickly you usually only get the big picture on the first try. Good luck getting an ADHD mom to read the fine print in the instructions… If it’s not in bold and labeled “Step: (insert number here)” you probably aren’t reading it. Oh, here’s my favorite example: What color are your best friend’s eyes? If you can answer that without thinking about it first, this list may not be for you.
5) Your house is never organized
I know you have kids and they are like mini tornados. That’s not what I’m talking about, nor am I calling into question the cleanliness of your house. My house can be both clean AND cluttered… and it usually is. I can’t get organized because as soon as I put something “away” I can’t find it again. So I just set up piles of things all over the house to visually organize.
6) You have a binky stash in every room of the house… and every car…
And your purse… and the diaper bag… and at your mom’s house… you get the idea. Basically, if it’s something that your child will throw a tantrum over, you not only have backups, but you have backups for the backups. And you’re constantly replenishing the stashes. Why? Because you lose everything that’s not physically attached to you in a matter of seconds. It’s not worth the meltdown, so you take the better safe than sorry approach whenever possible.
7) Talking to your infant came naturally
When they’re told to talk to their babies to promote language development, it gets confusing for a lot of moms. What am I supposed to say to someone that can’t join in the conversation? For those of us with ADHD, we started before they were even born. We are used to talking about nothing to no one in particular. We enjoy being able to voice our stream of consciousness without judgment. So we narrate our lives to our bellies. We tell the baby to stop kicking us when we’re trying to sleep or sing him a lullaby. So when he’s in your arms, it’s only natural to keep it going. And every spit bubble, eyebrow lift, and gas-induced smile is a reply that fuels us… Can you tell this is one of my favorite symptoms? 🥰👶🏾
The endless chatter is a sign in most women. You can read about more symptoms in women here.
8) No one can tell the difference between your handwriting and your child’s
If your child’s teacher has questioned if a note you sent in was written by your child… This one’s for you. My handwriting isn’t quite that bad. Really, it isn’t bad at all except that I generally don’t go back and dot my I’s. Or when I’m writing really fast, it can get pretty bad too. Maybe I got lucky in the handwriting department because I don’t have many symptoms of hyperactivity 🤷🏽♀️. I don’t know, but I do know it’s a problem for many others.
9) At some point, someone had to inform you it’s your child that’s crying
This, my friend, is Hyperfocus, and occasionally it shows up at the worst possible times. Like when you’re at the park and supposedly watching your kids… but you’ve actually been sucked into the Pinterest void. You have pinned 20 new recipes for dinner tonight, even though you’ll most likely end up ordering pizza anyway. Read more about Hyperfocus…
The lady sitting on the bench next to you taps your shoulder and says, “Hey, isn’t that kid crying over there yours?” And you feel like you’re waking up and all the sounds sights and smells of the playground come rushing in, and you curse under your breath cause… yup that’s your kid crying under the monkey bars and you had no frickin clue….
No, that didn’t ever happen to me!… geez!… Actually, I’m sorry, I lied that totally happened, please don’t judge me… She was fine, I swear! 😟 But yeah, you get the point. #ADHDmomlife am I right?
10) It takes you a second to remember the year your kid was born
You can probably rattle off the month and the day easily, but after your kid is around three, you have to do some quick mental math to figure out the year. My youngest daughter was born in 2014.
I have two ways of remembering.
- If I remember my middle daughter’s year, 2007, I would know to double the last digit.
- If I’m drawing a blank on both, I’m counting backward from her age.
- Sometimes I use the first trick the other way around for my middle daughter.
Basically, if you have ADHD, dates are not your friend. I forget birthdays, anniversaries, pretty much everything. I’ve even forgotten my own birthday… It’s the sad but honest truth of this life.
11) You got excited when your kid hit a year (or two) old for the wrong reason
Again, don’t judge me, but I was super excited when my kid turned one because it meant I could stop counting months. Later some bane of my existence decided that as moms, we need to keep counting months until they’re two. I want to find the woman who started that and give her a good tongue lashing… that is a weird phrase tongue lashing. I don’t want to smack her with my tongue… but I digress… Counting months is like trying to remember dates… It doesn’t work… I have to have a reminder on my phone for the first 2 years, so I remember when my kid is 8 months or 16 months. If you feel my pain, you may be an ADHD mama.
12) You have 100 tabs open in your browser at all times
Okay, maybe 100 is a bit of an exaggeration, but it might not be by much. The point is… you know, if you close a tab, you’ll forget how to get back to the page again. Or maybe you haven’t finished what you were doing on the site. Or you got a squirrel moment while reading a post and opened a new tab to search about the latest thought with every intention of returning to the last thing only to have something else catch your attention, and the process starts all over again… Whichever one you relate to… this is a sign you’re a mom with ADHD.
AND ONE MORE FOR KICKS: It took you three days to finish reading this list
I actually had a comment on my other symptom list, 12 signs you have ADHD, and 4 signs you don’t, that made me think of this one. She said it took her days to get thru the list, but she finally finished it. I laughed with her at the irony of one of the signs you don’t vs. what she just said. Yeah, if it took you longer than one sitting to read through this list in its entirety. That’s a red flag for you being a mom with ADHD. This is especially so if you left it in one of your 100 tabs that you always have open! 😉
Until Next Time…
💖Kami