Just Say No

If you are about to medicate your children - beware. I'm all for better living through chemistry, but perhaps your darling angel should try self-control first. Here's why:

Children are a pain in the ass, especially when they won't sit still. Such children do best with parents who stay on top of them, demand discipline and provide consistent boundaries in which proper behavior is expected. If you choose to take the easy way out and dope 'em up instead, there is a very good chance your kids will come to depend on medication and never acquire the skills necessary to rope it in without pharmaceutical intervention.

Fast forward to high school and said medicine begins to bother them. Side effects include droopy dinkidoos, weight gain, and acne - which combine to make teenage years even more challenging and heart breaking. Plus Druggies get made fun of for exhibiting zombie-like characteristics. So they quit cold turkey.

I watch your children try to make it through a typical class period. These Walking Life Lessons can't concentrate, so instead they:

- fashion silver gum wrappers into grills.
- twitch and stretch and move at least one part of their bodies every ten seconds.
- talk to imaginary friends or themselves or their classmates. Often inappropriately. Almost always despite the fact I've asked them to be quiet.
- put pens into their bracelets and aim them like Spiderman at kids who are trying to concentrate.
- disrupt the class. Every day. Without fail.

This is not high school behavior. So I call home, conference with the kid, move them to different desks - doesn't matter. They take themselves with them wherever they go. So I write referrals, conduct behavior analyses and eventually remove them from a traditional classroom setting.

They've never been taught to sit still and pay attention and when meds wear off, we've got a certain population that cannot function properly.

Once again, parents, do your job. And if popping pills is the only solution, be prepared for trouble later on. Or lifetime addiction. Whichever you'd prefer.