Not long now till the flood gates open and all the little ones come pouring out of school for the Summer Holidays! Let's talk about the moment it hits. Maybe it's when the school sends home that "last day" letter or the whole year's worth of artwork and books. 📚 Maybe it's when your kid announces they're "SO ready for summer." Or when it's 11pm on the last day of term and you're lying there thinking… oh no. Because you know what's coming. 😅 The "I'm bored" at 8:47am. The snack requests every fourteen minutes. The sibling dynamics that were fine — fine — when they had six hours apart. The routines that held everything together just… dissolving overnight. The noise. The negotiating. The not knowing what day it is. The guilt that you're not doing enough. The guilt that you're doing too much. The guilt that you're just… surviving it again! And if your kid is demand-avoidant? Let's just say things can get very overwhelming.. fast! The transition alone can take weeks. The dysregulation that comes with unstructured time. The way "fun" can tip into overwhelm before anyone saw it coming. Summer can feel like something that happens to you. But what if it didn't have to? What if this summer felt genuinely grounding instead of just… survived? If you could redesign it — what's the first thing you'd change about expectations around summer or summer in general? No wrong answers. Drop it below 👇

A-Z gif challenge 🎮 Parenting edition. One letter. One gif. That's it. I'll start with A... 👇

If you were treated badly as a child — that was never about you. Not your personality. Not your needs. Not how loud you were or how much you felt or how difficult you seemed. You were a child. You needed what all children need. And the adults around you couldn't meet that. That's their story. Not yours. The shame you carried — you can put it down. It was never yours to hold. It got handed to you before you were old enough to know you didn't have to take it. You were not too much. You were not the problem. You were just a kid in the wrong environment. And the fact that you're here — still trying, still growing, still showing up for yourself and maybe for your own children too — that's not small. That's remarkable. You broke a cycle just by questioning it. You changed a story just by deciding yours could be different. That takes courage most people will never understand.

Trait: If one person gets something, everyone must get the same. An imbalance — real or perceived — cannot be left alone. What it can look like: Intense distress if a sibling gets something they didn't Keeping score across days, weeks, sometimes months Needing to even something out before they can move on Watching carefully for fairness in every interaction Feeling wronged by things that weren't meant as favouritism This isn't jealousy or pettiness. The brain is running a constant fairness audit — and an unresolved imbalance feels genuinely threatening, not just annoying. Gentle guidance: Acknowledge the imbalance before explaining it Avoid "life isn't fair" — it closes the door without helping Where you can, even things up — it costs little and means a lot Help them track the bigger picture: "remember when you got to choose last time?" A child who equalises is a child with a fierce sense of justice. 🌿

Heads up — weekly topic is on in 5 days, and I want to know if you're coming! 😄 These work so well when we get a small group together — it's one of those spaces where you realise you're not alone in what you're navigating, and something usually clicks that wouldn't have if you'd just read a post. The catch is they genuinely need people to show up. I can't run a discussion on my own (I've tried, it's weird 😅) — so I need at least 2 or 3 of you to say you're in before I confirm it's happening. And if you've got a topic you've been wanting to explore — even better. You're welcome to bring it and lead the discussion yourself. This space is yours as much as it is mine. 🌿 If you're interested, comment below to lock in your place. Even a "I'm in!" is enough — just need to know you're there. And if you've got a topic idea, throw that in too! 👇