I Might Have -- oooh, shiny! -- ADD

Our children have tremendous problems with anxiety.  We're working on it, in all kinds of ways, but they tend to be perfectionists and completely lose their little minds when they make the tiniest mistakes.  This is surprising, because the Absent-Minded Professor and I are constantly doing our best to model appropriate mistake-making behavior.  And by "modeling appropriate mistake-making behavior," I mean we're awesome at screwing stuff up and being okay with it.

Example? The Absent-Minded Professor left his ATM card in the same bank machine three times in one summer.  Did either of us pitch a nutty? No. We called the bank and got new ATM cards. Three times.

Better example? I've explained before how much I suck.  One of my sucky tendencies is putting off paying the bills because my brain is exhausted and doing math makes it hurt more.  Eventually I get a nastygram from one of the utility companies, and then I freak out and pay everything at once.  

Yeah.

Maybe when I mentioned that particular sucky tendency, I should have taken my own little hint and paid the damn bills.  Because today, the power went out.  Partly because I misread the bill, but mostly because I'm a jackass.  It said the bill was due on October 15.  It's not October 15 yet, right?  Turns out there was some past due amount too.

Advice to power companies: the email about my online statement should not read "Your bill due Oct. 15 is ready to be viewed" if there's a possibility you're going to shut my power off before October 15.  It should really say something like, "Dude! Get off Facebook and pay your bill or you won't be able to recharge your cell phone!"  I'm sure I would pay the bill immediately if it said that.  

Yes, of course it's my responsibility to pay the bill on time.  I'm just saying, from a business perspective, the power company might want to realize that I've already forgotten that I forgot to pay last month's bill.  So maybe changing up the wording might help them get their money faster.

It gets stupider: I paid the bill online, but was told it could take up to 36 hours for the power to come back on.  I decided that we would go out for dinner, and if the power wasn't on when we got home, we would stay at a hotel.  I'm sure some families think that a big camp-out by flashlight on the living room floor sounds like a blast, but keep in mind this is Houston and we still need the air conditioning on.  Also, my younger two lose all ability to remain rational when it's very dark. 

While it was still light out, I packed up clothes and pajamas, toothbrushes and medicines, in case we needed to go to a hotel later.  Because if it was dark when we got home from dinner, it would be hard to find the clothes, right?

Oh, yeah.  I'm a planner.

The best part? As I was packing, I was congratulating myself on thinking ahead like that.  And then suddenly, it occurred to me that if I was such a great planner, I would have paid the damn bill on time, and we'd have air conditioning and lights and Lego Star Wars on the Wii.  So in fact, I am a jackass.

Except.

This little incident made me realize how much I'm like my nine-year-old daughter, the Pork Lo Maniac.  I never thought she could have an attention deficit disorder, because she can concentrate for hours on her writing.  When it's time for math, she's distracted by little bits of dust, by the way the pencil feels rolling between her fingers, by the wind blowing through the grass outside.  It's like watching a cat try to do division.

After some recent discussions with her teachers, we realized that the Pork Lo Maniac needs to be evaluated for ADD.  I doubt she needs medication, but she probably needs more support in learning how to keep herself organized.

Hmmm.  Can write for hours, shuts down for math, needs to get organized.  Starting to seem, oh, I don't know, vaguely familiar.

I'm not saying I have ADD -- ohmygahd did you see that hat on Regretsy?  Ahahahahahahaha! Wait, what?  Right.  I'm not saying I have ADD, necessarily, but perhaps a different approach is in order for me, too.  I've decided to embrace the fact that I suck at certain things, and figure out a way either getter better at it or work around it.  First action? I signed up for automatic pay for every bill I possibly could.  Yay me.

Second action? When the kids asked why the electricity was off, I told them the truth.  I made a mistake.  Embarrassing, but not life-ending.  Mistakes happen.  You learn from them, and you fix them if you can.  In this case, the power was back on within a couple of hours.  

The kids were totally disappointed that we didn't get to stay in a hotel.