Hi, everyone!
I've gotten a good chuckle out of the messages in this thread, and am grateful for the warm welcome to the forum. Especially fun to get a multi-lingual welcome! I speak 4 languages (well, 5 if you include Pig Latin) and enjoy being able to use them! I didn't even try to type without using the space bar, I knew how that would end up.
I cyber-tripped over this forum one day when I was looking for information on ADHD and ODD. My son's pediatrician suspects that these are the likely culprits for my son's behavioral issues. I am currently in the process of finding a place to do a neuropsychologist evaluation on my son. This will be made easier when I get him switched to his father's insurance; the insurance that my son is currently on (mine through work) inhales forcefully and nobody to whom I've been referred will accept it. Right now, I'm also in the process of getting myself glued back together again so that I can help my son; too many months of his behavior have shoved me over the precipice into the vortex of depression. I will be starting medications as soon as tomorrow so that I can get myself back together and stop crying.
I'm so glad I found this place. I don't know anyone in real life who has problems with their kids like what I'm experiencing with my son. This forum has given me hope that things CAN get better and it's good to know that I'm not alone.
Other little things about me...I LOVE animals! I have two dogs and 5 pet rats (yes, you did read that correctly). I think I find it gratifying to care for creatures that don't mouth off at me all the time. I have a tendency towards owning "exotic" pets: tortoises, sugar gliders, I even hand-raised a monkey for a few years. I enjoy music (in particular Radiohead, Sigur Ros, and Coldplay), but I can't sing well or play any instruments. I also enjoying reading, but haven't been doing much pleasure reading lately (unless you consider
The Explosive Child pleasurable). Finally, I love what I do for a living. I've been teaching French and Spanish at the high school level for 3 years, and before that, I taught French at the college level for about 12 years (while working on Master's and PhD work). I have always felt fortunate that the thing I'm best at-- teaching-- is also what I love to do. Not everyone is in that position, so I feel lucky.
Now, if only I could get this situation with my son under some semblance of control.