What can I expect?
Here we hope you will find a community -- folks who share some of life’s lighter moments, some
of it’s struggles, and strategies that address those various challenges. One of our
gifts to each other is the strength that lies in the knowledge that we’re not
alone.
If you join the Sizzle Bop! list (absolutely free), you’ll receive
regular reminders (some daily, some weekly) prompting you to
act in ways that grow not only your distractible loved one but your whole
family. You'll also receive tips that equip, thoughts
that encourage and stories that entertain. To
see examples and learn more about joining, click
here.
Why is it called
"Sizzle Bop?"
The title for this site was an inspiration from my much loved but high energy (and high maintenance) son.
One night several years ago, he came rushing into my room, out of breath, to inform me that something “really serious” had
happened. It somehow involved flying pieces of broken light bulb glass and smoke. Fearing an impending fire, I flew to the site of
concern. Sure enough, there was a light bulb with a substantial portion missing. I found the offending piece lying almost ten feet from the lamp.
I wondered at the laws of physics that had been at work here when I saw what looked like the remnants of a water drop on a piece of
glass. I asked my son if water had been dropped onto the bulb. With very deliberate speech, he said that perhaps…when he had been talking…a piece of saliva...might have been expelled onto the
bulb. Why had he been talking to a lamp?…I thought.
Then I noticed the desert dry rivulets of previous spit streams that were encrusted upon this defenseless
bulb. “Son…?” I called quietly. My incredulous tone betrayed the
calm I otherwise possessed. What I’m thinking might have happened here couldn’t really have
happened....could it? “Son,” I said again… “have you actually been spitting on this light bulb?”
I could visualize seventeen or eighteen wheels turning in his head. Finally, the answer I shall never forget
emerged.
“Because I like the sizzle”
In spite of the very clear dangers, I burst out laughing. (I know that many children go through a saying “NO!”
stage. Some go through a biting stage. But no one ever warned me about the
“spitting-on-light bulbs-stage”). I think the most revealing part of the story can be summed up in the line “I like the sizzle!”
These kids do indeed like the sizzle. They like to
That is a part of their wonderfulness…and also a part of the challenge in sharing daily life with
them. That sizzle can lead them into wonderful discoveries of humor, learning and
experience. But that same desire for sizzle can lead them into difficulties.
Our hopes in this group is to limit the difficult side with shared strategies and to more fully celebrate the wonderful side that is so often
missed.
And here comes the “Bop” part of Sizzle Bop! There is a daily dance of life that is unique to
the shared time with these high energy individuals. In spite of all of their challenges, there is a charged and delightful energy that comes with the
package. In our family, we’ve chosen to dance to the music, to join in the bop, instead of trying to turn down the
music.
