Mother’s honest post on parenting a child with ADHD goes viral

'Unless you know the struggle of being a parent to a child like mine, you cannot judge'

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A mum's Facebook post about the reality of bringing up a child with ADHD has gone viral, and for all the right reasons.

A moment that all parents know well, children’s tantrums are a force unto their own. There’s screaming, floods of tears, and worst of all, the glaring stares of strangers who feel the need to comment on your abilities as a parent.

This is a situation that Taylor Myers knows all too well.

“I’ve walked out of stores hundreds of times because of her,” the mother wrote in the now viral post. “She’s relentless.”

Talking about her 4-year-old daughter Sophie who has ADHD – a chronic condition that can lead to attention difficulty, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness – Myers took to Facebook to explain how one woman managed to transform a gruelling shopping trip into something beautiful.

“As I stood in the customer service line of Walmart to cash my paycheck with a cart of groceries(and some wine), Sophie sat/stood/did heads stands in the cart, whining over a bag of chips I took away and because she called me a butthole in line,” Myers wrote.

“Her ADHD and obsessive little heart gets on these subjects of things she finds unjust and wrong and it doesn't stop until she eventually falls asleep or something very dramatic happens to snatch the attention off the obsessed about subject.”

After asking her daughter to sit down so that she doesn’t fall for what felt like the hundredth time, a woman behind scowled, “'Oh, for Christ's sake give her a cookie so she'll shut up.”

“I could've responded in a nicer way. I could've explained to her that my four year old has pretty severe ADHD, I raise both my children alone, I'm doing my best, and had no choice but to wait it out for the groceries,” Myers writes.

“Instead, I heard 'she's four years old and you need to mind your own f***ing business' come out of my mouth.“

As tears strolled down her face, the distressed mother walked over to the self-checkout to avoid further confrontation when she was approached by another woman.

But this time she engaged with Sophie, asking her questions and backing up Myers’ decision to take away the bag of chips.

“Honestly, this woman could've been the antichrist and I would've had more appreciation for her kindness and compassion than I have for anyone else I've encountered,“ she wrote.

“It only takes one comment to break someone down. You never know what someone's going through. You never know the problems a child has that causes them to misbehave unless you know the struggle of being a parent to a child like mine, you cannot judge. But it also takes one small act of kindness to make a mama feel comfort and validation.”

Myers ended the post by thanking the anonymous woman for her kindness, adding, “Mamas have to stick together.”