What is normal anyway? I have been struggling against the odds to make myself appear normal for the last 50 years. But.. being the rebel that I am.. and a philosopher to boot.. I always seem to do or say the wrong thing at the right time..lol.

What does the word normal imply to you?

A Sense of Normalcy

As you say Linda, 'normal' in one country or culture can easily be 'abnormal' in another. A complex subject! (JOY)

I enjoyed the article Linda and it set my thinking off in several directions, from whether anyone can ever be truly non-jugemental to whether anyone can ever be normal, for is it something one can judge for oneself or is it normalcy something that can only be created through the eyes of others?

I was thinking the other day about the trials and tribulations my 25 yesr old bi-polar son has gone through. He is a strong, compassionate and loving being these days..engaged to a beautiful woman and holding down a job he loves. But, it wasn't always that way. Throughout his first 8 years of schooling he was thought to be slow functioning and special needs. After taking an IQ test in his last year of junior high, he was found to have an IQ of 165. That changed things as far as the school was concerned. They tried to push him beyond his limits, and consequently he had a nervous break-down and quit school at 16.

One day, just before he quit school, he came home with a big red F on the top of a paper he had put his all into writing. It was based upon his own opinion(which the teacher had requested), but since his opinion did not agree with hers, she failed him. He said to me "Mom, never in my life have you called me a failure. What gives her the right?"

Indeed, what did give her the right?

I think that our culture really needs to review our standards of normalcy.. especially when it comes to children.

That is very true, it is very scary how one incident in a child's life can affect strongly how they view life for the remaining decades they live!

Linda, I am so sad that your son had to go through that. While Bi-polar Disorder is not the same as ADD, they do have some things in common. One of them is that there are often problems in school.

I have several articles on this on the ADD site. I invite you to read them and pass them along to your son.

He has had to work double-hard all of his life, I'm sure. It sounds like you did a fabulous job of mothering him.

Connie

I really enjoyed the article by Linda.