Candace McLane's Page

I have a lot of kids- and a lot of kids with special needs, so this problem may be unique to me, but I struggle to keep track of where I am in the process of raising my children. There are times that I am very overwhelmed by how many needs they each have or am overcome with worry that I have overlooked an issue. They are a whole person, but with special needs it is easy to hyper-focus on the educational issues and overlook other aspects of their being- like their spirituality or awareness of the… Continue

As I readied myself yesterday morning, looking for ESPN to relay griping Super Bowl details, I was sadly shocked to see a picture of Michael Phelps smoking pot from a bong. My thoughts immediately drifted not to Michael’s loss endorsement deals but to his mom. I met her several months ago at a Mom Ambassador event where she relayed her journey to recognize and then manage her son’s ADHD. She talked about his trials with medicine, his struggle in the classroom, and her mission to advocate for him… Continue

One of the largest challenges of running a household, can be managing all the paper! What to keep, what to toss, where to file it, let alone filing it at all- can be an overwhelming series of tasks. Consider creating a home management notebook: create your “powermom handbook.”

Start with a 1-1/2 inch 3 ring binder, a box of page protectors, and stick-on durable tabs. Attach a tab to a page protector, label the tabs and create page dividers. Suggested page divider labels include: contacts, sched… Continue

The Fridge Door Gallery celebrates families who defeat overwhelming obstacles to achieve. Living with ADHD, children and their parents’ self-esteem can take a beating- we struggle to do things the traditional way. Sometimes that puts our kids and us on the outside of what is “normal” among our friends and aquaintances in the neighborhood or school.

The Fridge Door Gallery provides a place for parents and kids to brag about their accomplishments- because we understand how hard kids and their fam… Continue

I live with 5 wonderful children 4 of whom have ADHD, two of which also have ODD, Oppositional Defiance Disorder. Being an occupational therapist married to a wonderfully loving and witty man, who was diagnosed with ADHD as a child, ADHD was neither unfamiliar nor unmanageable. As a therapist, I knew how to arrange my house so it was organized. I knew how to follow a routine and keep it. Raised by strict parents, I knew how to be a consistent disciplinarian: I was the loving parent who provided… Continue