This morning, I saw something online that stopped me in my tracks.  
An unflattering picture on Facebook of a familiar teenager who looked high as a kite. No, it wasn’t the camera causing the red-eye.  
I’ve seen that same photo of my own child. 
  
I decided to write about what I consider to be a new age pandemic. 

We can all agree that the computer might be both the most ingenious and the most controversial tool of our modern age. Our children do not know life without it.   When it’s used for it’s intended purpose, it is invaluable. 
When we overshare without a purpose, it can haunt us for the rest of our lives.

Back to Facebook…  A brilliant social networking service.  
A great way to reconnect with old friends, advertise a new business or 
promote a cause.

What some might think to be an appropriate post on Facebook is subjective.

For example, I do not believe that it is in good taste, or responsible for that matter, to post pictures of teenage girls in bikinis.  It is amazing how many mothers splatter the walls of Facebook with half naked photos of their high school daughters. 
Helloooooo ?

I have seen pictures posted of young people who are obviously drunk or high or both.  I have seen pictures posted of young people in compromising positions on sofas and in beds with others.  It may be subjective, but I think that it is dangerous. If we don’t think that present or future employers look at this kind of garbage, we need to pull our heads out of the sand.  

We have got to put a daily APB out there reminding the Facebooking world, 
and especially our children, to use some discretion. 

Let’s leave something to the imagination.  

Over lunch recently, my friend, Kathleen, offered some good advice: 
“Write about the happy times, too.”  

She has been following my blog and I asked her for some much needed feedback… for two reasons.  We have parented children together and she knows a lot of the struggles our family has been through over the years.  
And, Kathleen teaches dyslexic and language learning disabled students at 
The New Community School in Richmond, VA.
  
She went on to remind me that a sense of humor is essential.

Happy times.  Humor.  Mothering addiction.  They don’t exactly dovetail.
But she’s got a point and I’m working on it.

As I mentioned in Change in Temperament  (Oct), my son repeated Kindergarten. During that second year, he was diagnosed with ADHD, which means that in addition to the attentional challenges, he exhibited hyperactivity and impulsivity.  
No surprise there. 
This extensive testing also showed learning style differences, also referred to as learning disabilities.  
This was a little harder to wrap my arms around.  

These diagnoses don’t come with a personal handbook.  And what I wish they’d told me was that the low self-esteem slowly growing in a child with ADHD and learning disabilities, after years of ongoing disappointments and failures, can 
lead to self-medicating.

The seeds of addiction, I realized, are sown early.  
As I recreate those years, I’ll keep an eye open for the good moments, too.
I’m sure they’re in there.  
Somewhere.