𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗹𝘂𝗲.

When a child is diagnosed with ADHD, the focus — quite rightly — goes to the child. How to support them. How to adapt the environment. How to advocate in systems that weren't built with them in mind.

What doesn't always get asked is: what about the parent?

I'm a carer. I'm also a registered practitioner who works with clients with ADHD diagnoses. And over time, I've been sitting with something that keeps coming up in conversations.

Some parents of children with ADHD — not all, but a significant number — are quietly recognising something in themselves.

Not a crisis. Not a label. Just a slow gathering of pieces.The years of losing things. The exhaustion of managing a household that runs on a different frequency. The strategies they developed without knowing they were strategies. The way their child's diagnosis has unexpectedly handed them a mirror.ADHD has a strong hereditary component. Research suggests that if a child has ADHD, there is a 40–60% likelihood that one parent does too — often undiagnosed, often masked, often managed through years of adapting without understanding why it cost so much.

For some carers, this is the first time anyone has pointed that out.They are still loving. Still caring. Still accommodating everything and everyone. And now — perhaps for the first time — beginning to ask what support might look like for them.

If any part of this is landing for you, you're not alone. And you're not too late.What has your experience been — as a carer, or someone who came to their own understanding later in life?