The Child Who Saves Their Worst for You
About this episode
This episode discusses why children often behave differently at home compared to school and how this reflects their emotional struggles and relationship with parents.
You pick them up from school and the teacher says it was a great day. The report is good. By every external measure — fine. And then you get to the parking lot. Or the dinner table. Or the moment the front door closes and the backpack hits the floor. And the child who held it together all day is suddenly a completely different kid. And you're standing there wondering what you did wrong — or whether something is wrong with them — or how the same child can be so different depending on where they are. Nothing is wrong with them. And nothing is wrong with you. What you're watching is information. And this episode is about learning to read it. In this episode: Why the hardest moment of the day is almost never school — and what that tells you about what your child's day is actually costing them What Russell Barkley's longitudinal research tells us about why the crash comes after — not during — and why that pattern is more predictable than it feels What the research on masking shows us about the effort behind "fine" — and why that effort has to land somewhere Why your child saves their worst for you — and why that is evidence of your relationship, not a failure of your parenting…
More episodes of Climbing Fish Parenting
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- Vacation Meltdowns: Why Time Off Doesn't Feel Like a Break for Kids who are Wired Differently
- Why Some Kids Implode and Others Explode
- The Skill Nobody's Born With
- Why Your Teen's Reactions Feel So Much Bigger Than the Moment
- "I'm Bored": What Your Neurodivergent Kid Is Actually Telling You
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