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Maybe your son is the exception to the rule, but my complaint is that waaay too many people use this "hook" as an excuse to duck their responsibility to be good parents.

There's no question raising children is a tough tough job! I blieve far too many parents are just too lazy, too distracted or flat not involved enough to take their job seriously. Kid's lives depend on parents' constant work and involvement.

And I see too many people using medications when they should be using their heads (ie, common sense). Sorry, but it makes me crazy sometimes....

We knew a kid who was put on ritalin in first grade. He was a fidgety kid in the class. They never tried anything but the meds. It was the first thing they did. They were happy that he was doing his homework. The thing is that he could read, and was doing okay academically.

but my complaint is that waaay too many people use this "hook" as an excuse to duck their responsibility to be good parents.

I agree that ADHD and ADD are way overdiagnosed, and that there are many kids taking meds that shouldn't be. When my son's teacher first suspected it, we took him to our family doctor who literally looked at him (didn't examine him or anything) and said "Well, he looks well adjusted to me, but if the school thinks he needs Ritalin, I'll write the prescription." I took him out of there and we found a pediatrician who spent two hours with him on the first visit. We went to meds as a last resort.

And the first day he went to school with the meds, he came home and said "I did all my math, and it was easy." But by the end of 5th grade, it was no longer working so we took him off the meds. We struggle every night with homework issues.

If we had honestly thought there as another solution, of course we wouldn't have chosen the meds. But we're upper-middle income, suburbia living, church-attending, community supporting, conservative, boy scout den leader, pta board member and stay-at-home mom (then) parents. It was not environmental with him.