29/05/2026
Masking at school but burnt out at home. The solution is more support 🥰
“Your child is fine at school, so the problem must be home.” Does this phrase sound familiar to you?
We would never say this to an adult.
If you come home from work exhausted, irritable, overwhelmed, or needing silence, nobody says:
“Well, clearly home is the problem — you were fine at work.”
We understand what’s actually happened: You’ve spent the whole day coping.
Holding it together.
Meeting expectations.
Managing sensory input.
Masking frustration.
Pushing through stress.
Being “on.”
And home is the place where your nervous system finally feels safe enough to exhale.
Children are no different. Especially neurodivergent children.
Many children work incredibly hard all day at school to stay regulated, follow rules, cope with noise, navigate social demands, sit still, transition constantly, and meet expectations that may not naturally fit how their brain or body works.
By the time they get home, the “holding it together” energy bank is empty.
So home gets the collapse.
The tears.
The anger.
The overwhelm.
The unmasking.
That doesn’t mean home caused the distress.
It often means home is where they feel safest to show it.
The meltdown after school is not proof that school is easy for them.
Sometimes it’s proof of just how hard they worked to survive it.
Its important that this concept is understood so appropriate strategies and support can be put in place in school so the pressure valve can be released more.