08/09/2026
This is our âback to schoolâ 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 wasnât safe, long before either of us had the words for it.
If youâre 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: thatâs not defiance. Thatâs not âjust anxietyâ to be managed with a sticker chart. Thatâs a threat response. Their body has made a decision faster than their brain can explain it.
EBSA doesnât respond to pressure. It responds to safety.
This wasnât the plan. I didnât 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 isnât for everyone, and itâs not our long-term plan. Itâs what this season needs. For us, right now, thatâs enough.
I see this from both sides now- as a parent whoâs living it, and as a hypnotherapist who works with children whose minds donât 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 doesnât fix this. Safety does.
đŹ If youâre navigating EBSA or school anxiety with your own child, Iâd love to hear where youâre at- no judgement here!
