Flying While Hyper: The Joys of ADHD Parenting During the Holiday

Tomorrow is the day we all have been waiting for: the day the entire clan goes on a cross-country airplane trip to grandma's house for the holidays. The kids have been counting down the days for weeks, absolutely jumping out of their skins in anticipation. They can't wait to see grandma(s) and cousins and aunts and uncles, and so on. As for me, I have been dreading the day. It will be awful. I can see no other way.

The last time we did this, 2 years ago, it was not a moment to remember. Everyone was so hyped up that they couldn't see or hear straight, which is every mother's nightmare. And my stepdaughter decided it was time to try out the baggage carousel's surfing ability. I turned away for a split second to look for screaming boys, and poof - she disappeared. I instantly saw her butt-surfing the carousel and grabbed her, but not before we got some very strange looks. This might have been cute if she was 4 years old, but she was 11 at the time, and believe me, it was not at all cute. My husband told some good tales about it afterward, but at the time, definitely not funny.

I can try to plan for the expected and unexpected, but the best I can do is to try to induce a catatonic state. How can I keep their interest in their portable DVD player or PSP for as long as possible?

Which brings us to the problem of paraphernalia. Its absolute necessity. How can their attention be diverted from noise and troublemaking without things to keep their attention? Husband/dad wants to minimize the checked bag fees by carrying on a lot of our bags. Wonderful. I can only think of all the extra rolling, carrying, crying, complaining, whining, and so on, from everyone who doesn't want to carry bags of clothes. And then when they want toys to amuse them, where will they be? Hmm, we will have underwear, socks, and t-shirts. What can we do with that on a 5 hour flight? Create "Captian Underwear" for our in-flight enjoyment? That will last about 1 minute. How about the other 350 minutes? That will be dad's problem, I think. Brilliant.

If I survive tomorrow (and I'm not talking about the possibility of plane crashes) I will thank the high heavens for good luck. Then a week later I will turn around and do it again. Yay.