I want to read a biography, not of Robin Williams, the talented actor, or Thomas Edison, the famous inventor (seen as a child at left). I want to read a biography of their mothers. How did they ever manage to cope? How did they avoid premature gray hair with their talented, unconventional, more-than-a-handful children? How did they survive their child’s childhood? And what tips do they have for me?
I remember reading somewhere when Edison was a child his teacher said he wouldn’t pay attention in school and was “a dumb boy.” His mom knew that wasn’t true, so she homeschooled him. However, history makes it sound like he emerged at age 18 a brilliant, well-socialized young man, with all these inventions dancing around in his head. I did see a brief mention where young Tommy threw a temper tantrum when he didn’t get his way and smashed a shop window. How did Mrs. Edison survive having a child like that? I need to know because my son’s brain works the same way as Thomas Edison and Robin Williams.
You can call it Attention Deficit Disorder or you can understand that it’
s not a disorder, but just a different way that the brain works and call it Edison Trait. Or like my son, Cameron (that’s author Patricia and son Cameron pictured at right) said when he was four years old, “I need to get my concentration to go into town. Shwitt! There! I got it!” Then he took a couple of steps and said, “Whoops, I lost my concentration! It ran out the door and over to Grammy’s house, and Grammy asked, ‘What’s that?’ and I said, ‘my concentration!’” But that has always been a problem, that slippery concentration just won’t stay put and is always “running away.”
At 5 years old, Cameron tested as “delayed” in learning because when asked to count to 10, he went, “One… two… threefivesixten.” I knew he knew how to count to 10, but he just didn’t feel patient enough that day to count those blocks one at a time for the teacher. We felt this impulsivity every day. Once, I told 5-year-old Cameron we were having tacos for dinner and he immediately wailed, “I hate tacos!” In the same breath, he turned to his dad and asked, “Dad, what’s a taco?” Any perceived change of plan and Cameron would just dig in and argue. It was so much a part of my life, that once when I told Cameron we had to make an extra stop in town and he simply said, “OK” I was astounded. I was so braced for an argument I felt like the person in the tug-of-war when the other side let go.
For all that he was an infuriating child to raise, he could be the most wonderful, the most brilliant child. I’d be pushing him out on his swing, since he hadn’t learned to kick to make it go yet. He said, “Push me high! Push me to Pluto!” Then added as an aside, “That’s the farthest planet from the sun, you know.” He loved watching Bill Nye the Science Guy and would just absorb information from the TV. He was pushing his truck around the porch one day and he picked up a hoop-shaped Frisbee. He put it over the truck and told me, “Michael Faraday took a coil of wire and made the electricity for the truck to go.” He would delight and entertain people like a miniature Robin Williams. He was 6 years old when he put on his “announcer’s voice” at dinner. “Ladies and Gentlemen… can I have your attention please. We’re here at the food race. The first one done, wins this lovely cake for dessert. Thank you for your attention.”
I still have days where every moment with Cameron is a struggle. Sometimes the only reason I just don’t scrap the project is that I’ve made it through this many years, I should be able to go just a little bit longer. But I would really love to get some encouraging words from Mrs. Edison and Mrs. Williams, such as, “One day, it’ll all be worth it.”
Patricia Robin Woodruff is an artist, writer, and all-around creative-type living in Floyd. Her artwork has appeared on the cover of three issues of the New River Voice.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Lisa Falzone // May 12, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I love this article (as well as this contributor and her son!). What great questions to ask of all mothers that have gone before. I only hope and aspire to be as good a mother as my own.
2 Blythe // May 12, 2008 at 7:21 pm
This is a terrific article, Patricia! I want to send the link to all my friends who have children “labeled” as ADHD or other such…
I certainly know your pain! I have long presumed that my own son is simply “differently-brained”, rather than saddling him with a “disability” and medicating the spirit out of him. Yep! It can be hard, and some days I want to be anyplace else but with him. But, all told? These are the brains of brilliance and creativity… These are the places of awe and wonderment. And I am privileged to be present in their workings.
Thanks for beckoning forth Mrs. Edison and her diary! If you find out more, please let me know! I want to read her thoughts and tribulations, too…
3 Marge Schwegel // May 20, 2008 at 12:54 am
As the grandmother of Cameron Woodruff, I can see his potential greatness. I looked at lists on the Internet of famous people with ADD/ADHD, and one website stated that the simple fact that these people achieved what they have in their own fields has to make you wonder is ADD really a disorder or a gift? There are researchers that have posed that very quandary. It is not uncommon for people that have been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD to be incredibly creative, and that helps them excel and succeed in what they want to do in life.
I did some research on Thomas Edison’s mother. Edison was a poor student. When a schoolmaster called him “addled” his furious mother took him out of school and proceeded to teach him at home. Edison said many years later “My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me, and I felt I had someone to live for, someone I must not disappoint.” She was the hero of his childhood. She encouraged him. He loved to explore and experience, not learn through rote memorization. His mother let him set up a laboratory in the cellar. Her faith in his natural abilities was at odds with the rest of the world.
There will be light at the end of the tunnel!
4 Joseph Rogers // May 23, 2008 at 5:01 am
Hi.
I’m a 30 yo. white male with the “Edison Trait”. I was prescribed Ritalin in Middle school, which I HATED, and had to take on into my 10th grade year. Then, my family doctor persuaded my father that perhaps it wasn’t the right thing for me at the time. My physical growth was stunted for some time, (am now 6′4″, 205 lbs but for the longest time could not gain weight, was at 165 or so until age of 22, 23) and I was able to maintain something of a “normal” lifestyle.
Two years ago this December, I realized that it was time for me to go back on medication for the first time in 13 years, or risk losing my family, and my job. ADD can be compounded by high levels of stress, and cause symptoms to appear that were not there prior to the outbreak. I was attending school, working basically full-time, and then met my wife, who gave birth to a baby boy in mid-2005. Family, work, AND school is a deadly combination, and it got to the point where I could not remember something without direct prompting. When I forgot to lock the door behind me at work and turn of the AV projector, I realized it was time to talk to the doctor…and my meds make the difference between night and day.
I understand about your son’s situation, and respect your decision to encourage his creativity. However, try to realize that this can be a full-fledged problem that will not allow a person to survive in the Real World without certain conditions being met. I do not claim to know his situation, merely to try and show another side to this.
Respectfully,
Joseph
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