ADHD in kids and gardening.

     From my personal experience, I have learned that getting your adhd child to go outside is one of the key things to help them with their emotional outbursts-why not incorporate that with gardening? Rather it be in the house, in the garden or a greenhouse, finding ways to let their little creative minds go wild without limits is so helpful. My daughter (6) has not yet been diagnosed with it, but as a person with very active adhd I notice the same tendencies in her that I had when I was that age. My shoes were always too tight, so were my clothes, I always felt suffocated, just like she does. Being an adolescent and having to learn to handle these emotions sometimes feels like the world is a big big place and they’re drowning in it. They have so much going on in their head all the time that listening becomes a major problem. Once they learn what to do and what not to do, they start to push their boundaries because being normal is “boring” to them,  and that is where gardening comes into play. Being in the garden allows them to throw dirt, stomp bugs, scream out loud and run around like the kids they so long desire to be. Macie, and me have had so many laughs, meaningful conversations and even some funny ones, while we were learning about plants. She has watched me kill them, cry, sing to them, dance with them, google a million things about mealy bugs when I had an infestation not only once but twice, just to finally find the right recipe to get rid of them. Having her grow up, right beside of me cheering me on is the reason why I have this business today. As a parent, you have to be the one to teach them life long lessons that they will pass onto their children. I remember being a child myself and picking walnuts up from my grandmas yard, and then swearing I would never plant green beans when I got older because my back hurt every summer when my stepdad made us help in the garden. Every year I would complain and swear I would never have a garden to tend to, and then I got older and realized I would give anything to go back and kick my teenage self in the a** for treating every lesson I was taught by him and my grandparents like it was a punishment when in reality they were just setting me up to be the woman God knew I needed to become; the mother of an ADHD girl. The long days in the garden would work my body and mind so much that I no longer had this desire to have to “do” so much. I was able to dig in the dirt, stomp all my anger out, shovel my frustrations away and then get on my had and knees while picking beans and thank God for giving me the chance to do that. I have now took that knowledge and applied it to my daughter. When she is having a bad day or is bored she will come up to me and ask if we can go to the greenhouse, so she can help. I used to frustrated at it, because she wouldn’t do it how I wanted or she would get more moody if I asked her to do something that she didn’t want, but I soon realized all she wanted was to feel like she had her own place in this world like I did too. A bucket, bag of soil and a couple of succulent droppings later, she now has her own fairy garden pot that she tends to. ADHD is hard, but don’t let it beat you or them up. Get them outside, let them help, let them just be in this world without having to always be living up to how we think they should be.