Audra Didn't Need Meds? Well, My Kid Does

As she accepted her record sixth Tony, Audra McDonald thanked her parents "for disobeying the doctors’ orders and not medicating the hyperactive girl." Which didn't sit well with Belinda Luscombe. Luscombe has kids and she hopes they someday thank her, too. "Here’s the thing though. I really want them to have jobs," she writes at Time. That pretty much means getting through school, but one of her sons simply can't pay attention without medication. "We’ve tried the theater, sports, music, wearing him out, getting him more sleep, meditation, diet," and more.

"The thing that worked best, that enabled him to learn to read and stopped him from getting into trouble at school, was medicine," Luscombe writes. McDonald may not have been specifically judging parents like Luscombe, "but damn it, you're not making it any easier to live with our hard decisions." No one likes medicating their child, especially not if doing so is dashing their (admittedly infinitesimal) shot at six Tonys. But so be it. Luscombe's son "may not be Audra-level awesome, but he's going to get through school." Click for her full column. (More Tony Awards stories.)