As the year comes to a close, we may imagine that finishing well means cheerful cooperation, completed tasks, calm mornings, and everyone gliding neatly into the final day.

But June rarely works that way. Motivation will rise and fall. Feelings will come and go. There will be days when children have energy and days when they simply do not.

By June, the feelings that were easier to carry in September or January may start to feel heavier.

Children may show it through behaviour. Adults may show it through shorter patience, quieter exhaustion, or that familiar feeling of having very little left to give at the end of the day.

So if June feels heavier than you expected, you are not alone

You are getting enough sleep. Or close enough. You are going to bed at a reasonable hour, waking up at a reasonable hour, doing the things you are supposed to do. And you are still exhausted. Not tired in the way a good weekend away would fix. Tired in a way that seems to sit underneath everything, that rest does not seem to touch, that you have quietly started to wonder might just be who you are now.