What happens when a child is both profoundly gifted and living with ADHD?
For years, Lyudmila Thomas received phone calls from teachers describing a child who could not sit still, interrupted constantly, questioned everything, and struggled to fit inside traditional classrooms. At the same time, she was raising a boy whose curiosity, insight, intensity, and intellectual depth astonished the adults around him.
Too Much and Not Enough is a collection of deeply personal essays about raising a twice-exceptional child-one who is both highly gifted and neurodivergent. Through stories of school meetings, psychological testing, homeschooling, giftedness, ADHD, motherhood, identity, and learning outside conventional systems, this book explores the realities rarely discussed in parenting conversations.
Written with honesty, warmth, humor, and reflection, these essays offer insight into the emotional complexity of raising a child who is simultaneously extraordinary and struggling.
Inside, you'll discover:
• The hidden experience of raising a twice-exceptional child
• Giftedness, ADHD, and asynchronous development
• School challenges and educational mismatch
• The decision to leave traditional schooling
• Homeschooling and alternative education
• Emotional intensity, fairness, and sensitivity
• Parenting through uncertainty and self-doubt
• Supporting gifted children without losing yourself
• Why strengths and struggles often exist together
• Finding joy in a child who never fits the expected mold
For parents of gifted children, neurodivergent children, homeschoolers, educators, psychologists, and anyone who has ever loved a child who was simply too much for the systems around them.
Because sometimes the qualities that make a child difficult to manage are the same qualities that make them remarkable.
