Bravo, Susan-Marie - you've put your finger on the root cause of the problem:
Lack Of DisciplineWe live in a very sick society.
People have abdicated their responsibilities, they've allowed the state to tell them NOT to discipline their children (the same state that, against ALL advice and in the face of ALL warnings, instituted the fantastically expensive, and fantastically useless O.B.E. system), they've handed their parenting duties over to the schools (run by people who are incapable of disciplining THEMSELVES properly, let alone a class filled way past acceptable capacity with normal, bright, and therefore mischievous children) - and then, when things just don't go as "fantastically" as they expected, as what the state promised them would be the case, when their child just doesn't turn into the next Einstein, when the incompetent and uncaring teachers complain that they can't get the children to sit still while they themselves catch up on their sleep in class - THEN they resort to drugs to "cure" their children of an illness that their children don't have, an illness that just doesn't exist.
Discipline starts and ends at home - and if it is applied properly, there IS no ADD/ADHD.
But if there is no ADD/ADHD, then the "parents" who rely on this 'condition' to excuse the negative results of their
pathetic parenting skills, and the unscrupulous doctors who make their living from diagnosing and treating these non-existent 'conditions', would have to face up to the fact that they're just plain incompetent and lazy. And that would NEVER do!
Especially not when, in modern society, nothing is ever YOUR fault - it's always somebody else's fault.
Here's a suggestion: Teach your child, from the start, that actions have consequences. And you'll never have to worry about crap like this non-existent ADD/ADHD, EVER!
But then what do you expect from a nation of lazy layabouts (over 60% of South Africans are overweight!) whose only claim to fame is their attitude of 'entitlement'. Everybody is apparently 'entitled' to be a parent. Everybody is apparently 'entitled' to be sexually active. Everybody is apparently 'entitled' to have fun and enjoy themselves. Everybody is apparently 'entitled' to drink and drug if they feel like it. And so it goes on - everybody feels they're entitled to have and do whatever they want, and to HELL with the consequences.
The problem is, some of those consequences just happen to be children. Children who need parents who actually love them enough to discipline them, to look after them properly, to do the hard work of raising a child properly and disciplining them consistently (as opposed to winning a popularity contest with their children), and to protect them from the charlatans who prescribe "Kiddy-Cocaine" (Ritalin) PURELY to make money!
Whatever happened to WORKING towards what you want, EARNING what you would like to enjoy, and REWARDING yourself for a job well done with a little relaxation and time off to appreciate what you've earned?
No, nowadays the rewards are DEMANDED - "We're ENTITLED to go out drinking every night if we want to" - and the costs thereof, well... "We'll worry about THAT when the bank tells us we can't have any more credit". Or "Life is SO unfair - all I was doing was having a few drinks after work, and now I've got a criminal record for drunk-driving and killing an innocent pedestrian".
If ANYBODY is
entitled to something, then children are ENTITLED to have a disciplined, strict, but fair upbringing, and have universally acceptable values drilled into them - things like 'don't steal, don't hurt others, don't lie' - values that even our own government is hard-pressed to understand, let alone observe. And parents actually LISTEN when the government tells them how to bring up their children? Jesus wept!
Children are NOT entitled to have cellphones, internet access, pocket money (unless earned), designer clothes, computers, or any of the rest of what society tells us they are entitled to. Children only have a very few rights - food, clothing, shelter, and education. The rest are all privileges, privileges that are mistaken for rights, and which thereby foster this vicious circle of the attitude of entitlement.
Keep it up, Susan-Marie - at least YOUR child will be all right. Well done!