Tough evening 😕

Totally get this. We are going through quite a calm phase at the moment but it’s so hard when it goes the other way.

The worse ones always happen when the other half isn't home. But I think it was not just the dog but the dog was the last straw. i think because he had a good day at school that factored into it. I just wanted to cry as I hate seeing him like that 😪.

Our worst meltdowns happen after the “best” days at school. I used to think oh my goodness did this happen all day in the classroom? Then I would hear from the teacher how great she did and that she met a new milestone or something, and I started to realize that the harder she works to stay regulated all day for learning and the harder she has to work social all day, the less capacity she has when she gets back to me, her safe person. When she was preschool/early elementary, I had to start scheduling about 30 minutes of “empty the cup” time after school. I bought a very small bouncy castle that we would inflate in the living room, and that often worked. We sometimes made it into a fort with a sheet on top and turned the lights low. Her cup was almost always about to overflow at the end of a school day and if I didn’t actively help her empty it, we would both go to the bad place very quickly 🤣. Sorry you had a hard day, mama. 💜

@Aimee thank you for this thinking back he had a good day at school but then got a bit silly so didn't get an extra reward. So that may have contributed. Again yesterday dad saw it hand in hand and I still felt rubbish. So we are going to try different strategies as the main 1 is when our dog barks unexpectedly he goes into an rage he gets so angry and it's hard for him to come down from that. I just feel useless like I can't help. But we are both audhd so I have to hide my overwhelme as to not upset him. I may ask his teacher how they help calm him.

We have noise cancelling headphones but he doesn't like wearing them 🙄