Sometimes, I don't know how we survive a week without losing it completely. Each day is a terrible struggle for all of us. We lurch from one crisis to another and, whilst we try hard to be proactive, it's not possible to foresee what George may do next or how his behaviour will affect the whole family. Today we received a call from the school SeNco because George (and five other children) had disrupted the last lesson so much that no teaching could be done. George was made aware of how disappointed the school were and he did apologise. He will always apologise when he realises how his behaviour has affected others. His biggest problem is not being able to learn from his mistakes and think about the consequences of his actions. That's just children, isn't it? Of course, all children must make mistakes - that's how they learn. ADHD children don't seem to be able to grasp the concept of it........

Not two hours later, we received a call from his Scout leader requesting that George was collected from Scouts because his behaviour was just too bad. We had explained to him (again!), before he went to scouts, the importance of behaving in an acceptable way. It doesn't make any difference how much we try, he just cannot seem to get it to sink in.

He came home, very unhappy because he had been excluded (understandable!) and was sent to bed. As he rushed past me, the distraught look on his face reduced me to tears. He sobbed for a while and eventually calmed down. He explained to me that he knows that he needs to try and stop doing the things that annoy and irritate others..... he has always known this but by the time he realises that his behaviour is not acceptable, it's too late. Any mother struggles to deal with their emotions when a child of theirs is so unhappy. Frustrations abound on all sides - our child is frustrated with himself because of his inability to control himself and we are frustrated with ourselves because of our inability to help him.

There is no support from the professionals because a) the lack of resources and personnel mean that too few people are trying to manage too many cases and b) we have withdrawn the Ritalin which is going directly against the doctors' recommendation.

It brings to mind the old cliché:

"We're damned if we do, and we're damned if we don't"