The Jake Chronicles

Through my desperate attempts to understand and to accommodate my son Jake's educational, behavioral and social quirks as a result of his dual diagnoses of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), "The Jake Chronicles" was born. ADHD cannot be beaten or schooled out of a child, as no child is at fault because their brains are wired differently than the average child. Therefore, the parenting methods I used with my first child were tossed away as I realized that Jake would require much more time, effort, and patience as a result of his ADHD. Daily, I journaled and blogged Jake's victories and struggles using light-hearted humor and sarcasm, partly as an outlet for myself, partly in the hopes that other ill-equipped parents might find similar solutions to parenting their ADHD children.

While Jake endured the endless challenge of ADHD, I channeled my situational depression into documenting the daily hijinks of a toddler like none other, in an attempt to help him traverse through his early preschool years as his navigator. My precious little boy with the charisma to light up a cavern, was gifted with the skill to negotiate as if he were filibustering on the floor of the Senate and was obsessed with all things fecal. A child with more nicknames than boats in a marina, Jake became obsessed with pirates at the age of two and thusly named himself Captain Jake Sparrow, You will laugh, you will snort, you will tell your friends, you may learn something about ADHD that might help you or help you to help someone else, but, more than anything, you will fall in love with my Jake, as seen through the lovingly sarcastic lens of his mother's words.