For many families, the moment the Christmas tree comes down marks more than the end of the festive season. It signals a shift in energy, routine, and expectations within the home. The lights are packed away. The decorations return to the loft. School bags are repacked. Alarms are reset. And suddenly, the pace of life changes again. For neurodivergent children, and for the parents supporting them, this transition can feel surprisingly heavy.

As someone who walks with neurodivergent families every day, I feel the weight of what it means to live with ADHD, not just in moments of creativity or hyperfocus, but in the tricky, exhausting, everyday moments when logic and calm dissolve, and overwhelm rushes in. One of those moments? After school: when the world transitions from structured to unstructured, from academic to relational, and everything feels too much.