A Successful Social Event

Last night, we had about thirty people come over for a cookout.  Due to rain, we didn't actually cook out anything, but we ate and drank and were merry.  The attendees were members of my husband's team at work.  There were lots of adults, and about ten kids all together.  G did a great job nearly all of the time.  As I was relaxing after, I starting thinking about why he was so successful.

- None of the kids were exactly his age.  No pressure to act a certain way or be friends with a certain kid.

- The two kids older than G were girls.  Strong-willed, well-spoken girls with a younger brother to boss around.  Two girls who had no problem telling G what to do in his own house.  While G hates when family tells him what to do or simply ignores the annoying voices, older girls are not an issue.  He's pretty obedient for the ladies.  I'm sure that will come in handy later in life.

- Josh.  Man, I love this guy.  I don't even know his last name.  He's an intern, and he took a whole lot of time to play with both of my boys.  He kept disappearing, and I didn't know where the kids were, and I'd find Josh lifting up J again and again to dunk his hamster toy through a basketball hoop.  At one point, G was melting down over what he wanted to eat.  I think he was just over-stimulated.  Did Josh tell G to buck up?  Did he give G a funny look?  Nope.  He just used a nice calm voice to help him out.  I informed Josh that we pay $10/hour for people to play Legos with the boys.  He said he'd take it.  I need his number.

Three pretty awesome aspects to the evening meant I got to eat and talk and play with the other kids a bit.  It wasn't perfect- J got tackled several times by G, which led to an insane amount of screaming.  We ignored most of it, and J came to us when he needed intervention.  G had trouble telling me what he wanted to eat for dinner and how much he wanted.  But in the past five years or so, this was the most successful social event I've been able to host.  So next time you have a get-together with a kid with ADHD, check your guest list.  It can help a lot.