My son is 13 and, like me, he has #ADHD. One of the ways this manifests is extreme reluctance to engage with “new” things outside his current hyper focus. Fortunately, my brother is exactly the same, so I have some experience of working around it (though for decades we didn’t understand what we were working around). However, it can still be really hard when I want either of them to try something I know they’ll love. I have to time the recommendation perfectly, or perform some sort of inception, otherwise they bounce off the idea like a fly hitting a window.

Mostly this has been around playing video games. Despite the Venn diagram of our three VG interests almost being a circle, the chances of us aligning to enjoy a game together (for more than a single session) are virtually zero.

Recently, though, my struggle with my son has been with movies. For example, with Rob’s death, I desperately want to recommend he watch Stand By Me. It’s the perfect coming-of-age story for boys coming-of-age. I don’t even want to watch it with him. I just want him to see it and feel it in his own way and time. But I’ll have to leave him to find his own way to it, which, I think, is as it should be.

Rest in peace, Rob Reiner, and thank you.