Children spend so much of the school day managing themselves. By the time they come home, their emotional capacity may be low. The feelings they have carried all day can spill out in the place where they feel safest.And sometimes, we will not get it right. We may snap. We may lecture. We may respond from our own tiredness.

Your child does not need you to perform fatherhood perfectly. They need you to keep choosing connection. They need to see that mistakes can be repaired, that feelings can be spoken about, that kindness and firmness can live together, and that love is something we practise in real life, not something we only declare on special occasions.

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.