Why Your Kids Turn Feral After School (And the 6 Rules That Fixed It). After school meltdowns, the witching hour, and the 6 rules I rebuilt to stop our afternoons falling apart as a mum with ADHD.

This is for you if:

• Your after school routine is non-existent and every afternoon ends in tears (yours or theirs)
• You've ever been a snack bitch for 45 minutes straight and the kids still won't eat dinner
• You've cried in the pantry and then come out pretending everything's fine

In this episode:

• After school regulation: why I don't talk to my kids for 30 minutes after school (and the brain science behind why they lose it)
• Screen time after school: the dopamine science that explains the meltdown when you take the iPad away
• After school snack prep: the lazy plate hack that stopped me being on snack duty for 45 minutes
• Evening lighting for kids sleep: why overhead lights after 6pm are suppressing your kid's melatonin (twice as much as adults)
• PM reset routine: the closing shift concept... treating the house like a restaurant you're putting to bed
• Revenge bedtime procrastination: the name for the 11pm scroll when your day wasn't yours (and why adult time fixes it)
• The catchall basket hack: batching the mess so you're not doing 100 trips with Polly Pockets

Timestamps:

00:00 After school meltdowns: brains, dopamine, and a lit match

00:27 Why our after school routine fell apart

00:47 The witching hour: how did people in the 1800s do this?

01:36 "It stops me crying in the pantry as much"

02:28 ADHD and time blindness: "for me there's either now or not now"

04:05 The moment I realised my after school systems had slipped

05:16 RULE 1: After school regulation... regulate first, everything else second

07:05 What's happening in your kid's brain after school (the amygdala hijack)

10:10 The 30-minute decompression routine + calm corner ideas

12:50 RULE 2: Screen time rules... no TV until the after school checklist is done

14:49 Screen time and dopamine: why screens after school make meltdowns worse

17:35 RULE 3: After school snack prep (the lazy plate + protein hacks)

21:32 RULE 4: Evening lighting for kids sleep... no overhead lights after 6pm

23:37 RULE 5: The PM reset routine... putting the house to bed

25:14 The catchall basket: organising after school mess

27:00 RULE 6: Mum's adult time + revenge bedtime procrastination

27:45 Evening planner check: the routine that closes my day

28:15 Outro

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I’m Steph Pase, your (somewhat) organised bestie in your ears. This podcast is about growth that’s messy, building a life that actually fits you, and what happens when life doesn’t go to plan. We’ll talk mental health, motherhood, business, ADHD and how to stop being such an asshole to yourself.

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