08/09/2026
This is our ‘back to school’ post. We home educate. Not because of some grand philosophy I had mapped out in advance, but because I watched a small nervous system decide that school wasn’t safe, long before either of us had the words for it.
If you’re a parent watching your child cry themselves to sleep, shut down, or become someone unrecognisable at the school gates right now, I want you to hear this: that’s not defiance. That’s not “just anxiety” to be managed with a sticker chart. That’s a threat response. Their body has made a decision faster than their brain can explain it.
EBSA doesn’t respond to pressure. It responds to safety.
This wasn’t the plan. I didn’t choose this because I wanted it. I chose it because it was the thing that kept my child safe and able to learn when nothing else was working.
To be clear- home education isn’t for everyone, and it’s not our long-term plan. It’s what this season needs. For us, right now, that’s enough.
I see this from both sides now- as a parent who’s living it, and as a hypnotherapist who works with children whose minds don’t fit the shape a classroom expects. Gifted and struggling at the same time, which schools rarely know what to do with. Children experiencing EBSA and school anxiety, for all kinds of reasons.
And I can tell you the same thing from both seats: pressure doesn’t fix this. Safety does.
💬 If you’re navigating EBSA or school anxiety with your own child, I’d love to hear where you’re at- no judgement here!
