I am pretty sure I have ADHD, but never been diagnosed. I had to learn certain things throughout school growing up and I almost failed out of my freshman year in high school. I was able to turn that around and figure out how to study and focus when needed. I basically used music and TV to help.
My kid has ADHD and I did get him diagnosed. I do not want to medicate him either. I would much rather help him learn how to control himself when possible instead of medicating him. It takes a lot of work. Especially in today’s age with avenues like YouTube where my kid will get absorbed into that for hours. Just like yours, he will forget to eat.
It takes a lot of work from my side to keep him focused. I have to sit down with him to do his homework. He goes to a school where it’s a bit more academically challenging as well, so what should only take 30 mins, might take 1-2 hours. He’s well ahead of his peers in certain areas like reading where he’s about 4 grade levels ahead. So, it’s not that he struggles with school or the material, it’s just focus. I have to make sure he does everything he needs to when getting dressed or ready. I have him in many activities to get him away from tv, YouTube, and other digital devices. It’s a lot of work on my end, but I do feel like it’s helping. In kindergarten we would probably spend 5 hours almost every night on homework. Now it’s 1-2 hours sort of spread out. He understands what is expected of him and he has better habits when it comes to studying.
The main reason I got him diagnosed was because of his school. This way they understand and can make any accommodations due to his behavior at times.
At the end of the day, for us, it’s all about routine. Even for myself. When I go on vacation and get out of a routine, I start going all over the place. Same for him. So, having a routine helps significantly. We do x homework first, then Y homework. We get our clothes on first, then brush our teeth for example. We go to x activity on this day at this time. This means I have had to become more organized myself, which is difficult for me.
You need to file taxes, even if you don’t owe anything. That’s part of being a citizen of the United States. You really need to reach out to a CPA to file this for you and get squared away. The foreign income tax exclusion just means you don’t have to pay taxes in the US under a certain amount. You may still need to pay taxes to the country where you are residing in. This is only with countries where we have an agreement with.
Depending on the state in which your address is in, you may have to pay state taxes. This is not part of the foreign income tax exclusion, that is only for federal.