Hi, I wrote about 6 months ago about wanting to put together something (booklet?) regarding the needs of the siblings of ADHD kids. There is some studies that suggest that living with the ADHD sibling can be very hard on them eg. frustration, having to take more responsibility, parental attention focused elsewhere, dealing with the behaviours, bugging them, etc. I also have noticed this personally. My daughter is 13 and son is 11 years with ADHD. She often becomes 'little mother", has to take more responsibility, has to take a back seat while I give him extra help with homework, organization, etc. She is sick of him moving all the time, making noise and generally disrupting her. She feels frustrated a lot of the time. She said the other day, "When I grow up I will die if I have an ADHD kid...I don't deserve that...I've had to grow up with it"
Anyhow, are there other parents with similar expereinces and concerns for the impact the ADHD child has on the other siblings? Are any of you willing to share this with me and possibly answer further questions or ask the siblings some questions? I think these kids needs tend to get ignored because it is not right in your face, so to speak.
thanks.
lauralea38992.4644328704good strategy! thanks for another way of looking at it...My nine year old step son has ADHD. We also have a two year old child-son. My experience has been different. With younger siblings, I think to some extent it helps kids with ADHD to show their brother the right thing to do. I put it to my stepson attention that his brother is always watching him and learning from him and if he would want his brother to do some of the wild things he does. It gets him to think about the consequences and minimized the behavior.