A stressful week is at an end... hopefully!

Here's a lovely picture of Madeleine sitting watching TV with a sleepy, relaxed baby sister Floriana. They sat like this for a good 10 minutes and it was delightful to watch.

I've had a very stressful week what with the baby/toddler group mums taking offence with me and me taking the whole thing a bit too much to heart (I hate upsetting people) and the whole thing just going on too long with continued ill feelings. See the link below if you want to know more. I need to spend a relaxing weekend with family who love me and that is what I will be doing!! Yeah for family! And my lovely new blip family too! Hehe!

On the subject of labelling, (because TractorFactoryPhotos commented here) I do agree that negative, sexist, ageist and racist are just plain wrong in any sense including the "Hoodie" term and it's such a shame that all kids who wear a top with a hood, and actually use it, are suddenly sinister in some way! However there is a lot of gang culture and probably as means of protection-by-reputation kids pull up their hoods as more than just a way to keep warm or dry these days. It's so sad that violent gangs who wear this type of top, have ruined it for the majority who are just regular kids! But having said that I know as a woman that if I'm on my own or more so when I have the children with me, and I see a group of boys with their hoods up I do feel slightly nervous and afraid and have to tell myself to stop assuming they're bad kids. I smile or say hello to purposely show, hey I'm not labelling you! Lol!

However I think in recent years as with many other things in life we have gone too far to the other end of the scale since we were at school (20-30 years ago) and labelling was used frequently. It is so politically incorrect to use any labels now, people are frightened somehow of them.

From my point of view labels can sometimes be humorous, and even useful. I lived with undiagnosed ADHD all through childhood, school, college and my young adult life thinking I was wrong, bad, lazy etc until about 5 years ago when I discovered my condition and got a diagnosis. The feelings of acute distractability, getting loads of brilliant ideas but due to lack of motivation not being able to see them through to completion, starting jobs but never finishing them, being unable to "get everything done", extreme fidgetiness, being impulsive, interrupting people etc all made sense. I fitted in to "a group" and was no longer different to everyone. What a relief it has been, a voyage of self discovery and a way to improve myself. I now look at any problems with a problem-solver-head on and have found useful ways to counteract any problems I have, although I still struggle daily with getting things done, and multi-tasking takes on a totally different role for me. I multi-task within a task and get distracted while doing a task and end up doing several all at once wasting lots of time! But I know the reason and I don't feel bad about myself. Labels are also good because they get kids the help they need. I never got any help, just criticism for not doing it right, being slow or daydreaming! I encourage people to get diagnoses for their children because without them their child may already feel different and may grow to distrust themselves as they get things wrong, constantly interrupt people, act impulsively, and can't get things done, to mention but a few. There are so many ways to help though and although being hyperactive doesn't "go well" with today's society we can find outlets and being able to hyperfocus is a bonus! The best description I have ever heard for being ADHD is this... Being ADHD is like driving a chariot pulled by 10 horses, all pulling you in different directions!

If anyone suspects they may be on the spectrum (and I believe there is a spectrum) or just wants to know about a positive take on ADHD take a look at Thom Hartman's theory as it's a useful and positive viewpoint, and his book A Hunter in a Farmer's World renamed Attention Deficit Disorder: A Different Perception which is amazing and was life changing for me! One friend who borrowed it, said she thought everyone should be made to read this! Lol