The meltdown is over. The storm has passed. Your child is quiet — maybe tearful, maybe exhausted, maybe already asking for a snack as if nothing happened. And you are standing in the aftermath, not quite sure what comes next. What you do after a meltdown matters as much as what you do during one. …
You lost it. You raised your voice, said something sharp, walked out of the room when they needed you to stay, or just completely shut down. Now the moment has passed and you’re sitting with the weight of it — the guilt, the spiral, the quiet awful question of whether you’re getting this wrong. Why …