When I was a kid, I was punished excessively. My diagnosis occurred when I was 25. In the 1980s, I got paddled every day at school and was punished constantly. It made me feel rejected, leading to rejection sensitivity dysphoria. By the time I was 9, I decided life was not worth living and have not changed my mind at 45 years old. I would never have a child to suffer the way I did. I still feel like nobody wants me around. My mental health issues have severely impacted my quality of life. I’m just now figuring out that this might be why I have never felt my clock tick, or thought for even a second of my life that I wanted kids.
Has this happened to anyone else? I wonder how many in this forum might have decided against parenthood due to ADHD effects without realizing it.
I didn’t figure out I had ADHD until my kids started getting diagnosed with it. All 3 have it, and I swear they got it worse than I did.
But growing up was fucked. Getting punished and beaten on the daily while everyone around me was getting away with murder was frustrating to say the least.
So you still wanted the kids? It didn’t cause you to hesitate? I knew very early that I wouldn’t have kids. Could be because my mother told us that kids ruin your life, though.
Yeah. They’re great… but it feels like we’re doing way more work than most parents. I feel that school bullying has had a 90% reduction since I was a kid and that’s with my kids going to the same school I did.
The doctors told my wife that her biological clock was ticking way faster than most, so I had 3 kids by age 30. The doctors were a bit reluctant to give me the snip at 31 before they realised I was 3 kids deep already.
Congrats and good luck!