Feel like a failure of a parent
My son is 8, diagnosed ADHD at 6 but every professional called it by the time he was 2.5. E started medicating him a few months ago with Quillichew. He is funny, brilliant, great at art, super social and curious. He also is impulsive, emotionally explosive, just started pooping in the toilet 6 months ago (multiple trips to the ER from withholding poop so badly), needs to be told 10 times to complete a task, co-sleeps with me because it’s the only way he will sleep, and excellent at pushing buttons.
My mom yelled a lot when I was a kid and I didn’t like it and always remembered it. I try so consciously to not be that parent and yet, thanks partly to the above, I find myself losing my patience and yelling what feels like all the time. And then he says devastating things like “I wish I had a better mom who loved me” and I cry myself to sleep. I am trying so hard. I repair after the yelling. I try to point out the good. I know kids with ADHD have lower self-esteem because they’re always being corrected and I feel like I’m doing it to my own kid.
I don’t even know what I’m looking for right now. Reassurance I’m not ruining his childhood? Tips? Solidarity? I’ll take anything.