27. How to Deal With After School Meltdowns: Why Children Have Meltdowns After School & What Parents Can Do to Help

Your child is so excited (and maybe also a little nervous!) to go to school; you send them off, and you can’t wait to hear all about their day when they get off the school bus. But come 3pm, instead of being greeted with hugs & stories about your child’s day, you get a grumpy attitude and a meltdown when you arrive back home. What gives?!? 

 In this week’s episode, I unpack the dreaded after-school meltdown and give you a step-by-step plan to support your child in the hours that follow their school day. I reveal why children tend to have meltdowns after school, what we can do to help, and why these meltdowns are so, so normal.

 Here’s the thing: School requires a lot of our kids; they have to follow rules, inhibit impulses, learn new things, and navigate new & unfamiliar situations (especially at the beginning of a new school year!). It’s stressful, and children need to release this stress once they’re reunited with their safe attachment figures. Once we understand what’s really happening when our kids have meltdowns after school, we can respond in a way that wires our kids for resilience & healthy emotion regulation!