My 13 yr old is ADD. I work full time, have a 2 year old, have a 17 yr old stepdaughter living with us. My husband is the father of the 2 yr old and the 17yr old. Unfortunatley he's not much help with my DD. She is driving me crazy. I start work before anyone gets up. She will take 30 mins to eat her cereal. She gets mad if reminded to take her meds, but doesn't always remember. She doesn't watch the time and usually gets into a fight every morning. She will then make a fool of herself on the school bus. She has alienated most of the kids in her class. She is not doing her work in class but will bring home 3-4 hours of homework a nite. She will watch tv after school even if she is told not to. We have had to lock them up before. If she can't get to a tv she will read a book. Then when I get home the fight is on to do homework. She doesn't want to be watched over, and now with the 2 yr old it can get very noisy and distracting upstairs, but if she goes to her room she will just read her comics and then lie about it. If she has a pro-d day she won't do her chores but will tell me she did. I spend all my time catching her in lies. I have tried all sorts of tangible rewards from candy, movie passes, paper routes, tv time, and even funky hair dyes (because there's nothing like being different). Nothing works except huge fights. IF we have a huge knockem' out fight she works great, but otherwise nope. I can't even go out during the week without phone calls from my husband, stepdaughter or daughter about some new fight. I just am getting her assessed for some counselling but I'm not sure how much longer I can go on. I love my daughter, but I am mentally exhausted and I don't know..... sometimes i hate to admit it but i wish she wasn't here, because the school work has been going on since grade one. Any suggestions?

I am a newbie and noticed no one responded to your post.  I hope you checked out other topics because you are not alone.  I just recently joined this web-site because my sister was desperate due to the battles with her 11 yr old ADHD child and I was desperate to help her.  

Please don't beat yourself up for "wishing she wasn't there".  To be honest, I am in awe of you and many other parents who post on this board.  You have been a great Mom fighting for your child for 13 years so you have earned the right to have those thoughts now and then. And my gosh, she is teenager to boot! 

I'm sorry I am no more help but I'll be thinking of you! 

I appreciate the responce. I love my daughter and 99.9% of the time I wouldn't trade her for the world.  I just get so tired of chasing my tail and not getting ahead. My step-daughter moved in 2 years ago and has done a complete 180 in her attitude. No skipping school, grades gone up, no parties, no drinking and a much better attitude and outlook on life. I think that this has made it even harder to deal with. Seeing improvements with one child and nothing really remarkable with the other.  I just needed to vent and used the forum for it. My DD has been going to a Ortan Gillingham tutor 2X's a week and she said that she is just flying through the program. Yah.. We are getting conselling involved this monday, so hopefully we can start moving into a better direction soon.

If anyone is looking for a tutoring program I would suggest the Orton Gillingham  program. I have seen a huge improvement in my DD spelling in only a few months.