Does bad parenting cause attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)? This is a common misperception, and the answer is No. However, we may sometimes feel like bad parents when it comes to raising our ADHD kids, especially if we are blamed and shamed for our child’s behaviors. Raising an ADHD child is no easy task, and understanding our child’s ADHD behaviors is the best way to reach our goal of being the best parents we can be.

Parents of ADHD children report more parenting stress compared to parents of non-ADHD children. According to Deater‐Deckard (1998), parenting stress occurs when parents don’t feel like they have the resources to deal with the demands of parenting. Parental stress can lead to less-than-ideal family interactions and relationships, which can potentially increase ADHD symptoms in children.

For example, if there is a cycle of a child not being on task and getting bad grades, the parents may become frustrated, and then the child becomes frustrated, which can bring out symptoms of ADHD. When my son would forget to turn in assignments for school, I would get frustrated with him, he would yell at me, I would yell back........

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