45 Left or Right Podcast

In Episode 14: "Summer Summer Summer Time" of the "45 Left to Right Podcast," freelance journalist and host Darisse Smith celebrates summer! She tells stories from her own childhood, especially her favorite vacation her family took to North Carolina. They took a spontaneous detour into whitewater rafting, and this became her favorite summer memory. Darisse talks about returning to North Carolina and whitewater rafting with her 12 year old son, and the desire of parents to cram in as many memories as possible into each summer. Did you know that summer vacations are a modern thing, and not out of the need for farm families to tend to crops? In fact, hot cities and mandatory school attendance were mostly responsible for our traditional summer breaks. Now, families spend summers traveling to experience new things, see new places, sometimes to see family, and, in parents' eyes, to create some core memories. The thing is, despite all of our efforts, kids usually remember things like the airplane emergency card, or, like Darisse's son, the rental cars of each trip. This doesn't change our need as adults to create and store our own vacation memories, though--for ourselves.

#SummerVacation #SchoolsOutForSummer #FamilyVacations #SummerCoreMemories #VacationPlanning #45LeftOrRightPodcast #HistoryOfSummerBreaks #UrbanHeatIslands #MandatorySchoolAttendance #180DaysOfSchool

Part II of my ADHD Series, "Oh, She's Just Flighty" talks about the traits of girls who have ADHD. They can be aloof, daydreamers, be overly emotional, be fidgety, have trouble focusing, be disorganized, or messy...and these traits are attributed as a personality rather than a collection of symptoms for a girl with undiagnosed ADHD. I talk to my friend, Amy, whose 8 year old daughter, Alex, was just diagnosed with ADHD. Amy talks about their process for getting Alex a diagnosis, as well as the grace she tries to give Alex for her sometimes unpredictable moods. Alex is a lucky young lady because she had teachers who readily recognized her inability to focus in school as being ADHD. Many girls struggle for years without realizing that they actually have ADHD, and subsequently can struggle with significant mood disorders, especially depression and anxiety, because they can't figure out the source as ADHD.

"She's Just Flighty" is a comparison companion to Part I, "Boys With ADHD--Not Just Hyperactivity." Boys and girls with ADHD generally presently differently--boys can be hyperactive and impulsive, while girls can be excessively talkative and disorganized, just as examples. ADHD offers a spectrum of traits and behaviors that would surprise most people. Enjoy this episode, and look out for future episodes in my series on ADHD.

#ADHD #ADHDInGirls #ADHDInBoys #LateADHDDiagnosis #MoodDisordersOrADHD #ADHDPodcastSeries #ADHDPodcast #45LeftOrRightPodcast

45 Left or Right Podcast Website

This is Part 1 of my ADHD Series! I hear the term, "ADHD" all of the time, but I only knew it to be what hyperactive, disruptive and impulsive boys were like when I was growing up. I've heard grumpy adults cry that it isn't a thing, and that kids who were unruly just need stronger parents. Well, it is in fact a thing, a thing that can disrupt the social, academic and emotional functioning of kids, teens and adults.

In this particular episode, I interviewed my son's friend, Alex, who is 12 years old, and very aware of his ADHD, and how it has affected him. He openly shares his experience, all whilst eating BBQ Chips in my new car. I cover some fundamental facts about ADHD, and also some more trademark traits of ADHD as it shows up in boys.

In future episodes of this series, I'm going to cover ADHD in Girls, Parenting Kids with ADHD, and then ADHD in Women, and in Men.

45 Left or Right Podcast Website

In this episode, I talk to Dr. Kathleen Nadeau, a dynamic clinical psychologist and leading expert on ADHD in women and girls. She is the Founder and Co-Owner of The Chesapeake Center, and has her Bachelor's, Master's and PhD in Psychology from the University of Florida (Go Gators!). Women in our society have been given an impossible role to play in that they generally work full-time outside of the home while also being expected to do the bulk of household duties. For neurotypical women, this is a tremendous and unreasonable expectation. For women with ADHD, they are operating in emergency mode all of the time, feeling like something is wrong with them because it is so much more difficult.

Women who are diagnosed with ADHD as adults often look back and see how they masked their symptoms in order to fit in--to make friends, to do well in school, to please their parents, and to do what is expected of them by society in general. ADHD in women is often misdiagnosed as anxiety due to all of these pressures, and all of their masking.

This will be the last episode in my ADHD Series, as I just can not improve upon Dr. Kathleen Nadeau's insight into ADHD. You will not be sorry you listened!

#ADHD #ADHDEpisode #ADHDinWomen #ADHDinMothers #UnreasonableExpectations #NeurodivergentWomen #KathleenNadeau #TheChesapeakeCenter

Jeff and I celebrated our 22nd Wedding Anniversary on September 1st, so I thought it was a perfect time to record an episode not only about the history of marriages and how wedding anniversaries have been celebrated since the Middle Ages, but it is the ideal time for us to tell the tale of our first little airplane flight together before our 1st Wedding Anniversary. A story that ends with us landing in a landfill in the small town of Andalusia, Alabama, and meeting a really nice couple who fulfilled every stereotype of an Alabama resident. This story kills at parties and social gatherings, so we decided to share it with the world. Or, at least, the dozens of people who listen to the podcast each week.

#AirplaneMishap #EngineFailure #LandfillLove #WomenAsProperty #WeddingCeremonySuperstitions #WeddingCeremonyTraditions #WeddingAnniversaryGifts

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