a bipolar daughter and the family who loves her: Dinner Games

About our Daughter

I am mother to four wonderful daughters, ages 17, 19, 21, and 23, and wife to the greatest husband on earth. God has given us a special child to raise one who was diagnosed with early-onset bipolar disorder at the age of seven, though she showed signs of it from the age of fifteen months. She also has ADHD, Sensory Integration Disorder (sensory seeking), Dyslexia, and Non-Verbal Learning Disorder-NOS, all typical comorbidities for a bipolar child. In spite of the trials, she enjoys lacrosse, running (finished her first marathon in October of 2014!), and reading and writing her own books. I will share with you the many joys and sorrows we have faced and will face in the future with the hope that you may find better understanding about this mental illness caused by both chemical and structural abnormalities in the brain. I desire that you will be encouraged by this blog if you are also dealing with a bipolar child. Thank you for reading and sharing in our journey.

How Did You Know She Was Bipolar So Young?

I wrote a long explanation of how we came to this bipolar diagnosis in a child so young under my post of March 19th of 2009. If your child or a child you know bears similarities, please seek out a good psychiatrist and don't wait for "things to get better." Often they will simply get worse, and the longer a child is unmedicated, the more damage their brain can accrue. Early diagnoses and treatment are key to providing these children with a chance at a successful life later as a teen and an adult.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Dinner Games

I don't know if you have this problem, but dinner time for us has always been stressful because of the difficult dynamics between our kids. With Caroline so easily irritated by noise, and Mae seeming to do her best to whine her way through the meal, we had come to dread mealtimes. I decided we needed some focused conversation, so I bought Dinner Games from MindWare. I think with shipping it was about $24.00 for a small index sized box full of cards with different conversation starters and dinner games. We have used this for about a week and the kids LOVE it. Instead of fighting and arguing ("She looked at me funny! She is hogging all the bread!") we have a much more pleasant time finding out more about each other, and being silly together. I put the link to the Family Dinner Games website at the right under Resources. We need all the help we can get!

6 comments:

domandkat said...: I think we have that and then this past December I found another - at Target, I believe- called "Would you rather...". They are good fun, but gives my 5 year old a perfect excuse NOT to eat, but just enjoy the game and eat candy later...; January 15, 2010 at 11:09 AM
Megan said...: Check out the website on my page--they have more cool stuff! I want all of them!; January 16, 2010 at 9:19 AM
Accidental Expert said...: We have the same problems. I think I'll look into this game too. Thanks!; January 16, 2010 at 7:48 PM
Corrie Howe said...: Sounds like a great way to make dinner fun. My kids would hate it. They'd roll their eyes and said, "Aw, Mom!"; January 21, 2010 at 9:31 AM
marythemom said...: We have this game too. My daughter's ADHD (and most likely her C-PTSD or RAD) meant she could not stay in her seat after inhaling her food before anyone else even finished serving themselves. We told her she could not leave the table until everyone had. The games helped a little.

My kids fought them though (all except the youngest, but even he gave up after facing all that teenage attitude). So glad yours are enjoying it!

We don't eat at the table as often as we should either.

Mary in TX; February 4, 2010 at 11:55 PM
Megan said...: Yes, one of the pieces of collateral damage from the war that bipolar disorder creates in our kids is that family dinner time becomes something to dread. We are trying to undo this, and have had some success, but we place our hope in the future when all of our girls have matured past the petty comments! We still try to sit down together several times a week.; February 5, 2010 at 1:10 PM