Episode Details

Your toddler is a delight all day at daycare, then melts down the moment you arrive for pickup. It has a name — after-school restraint collapse — and there's real cortisol research behind it. This episode digs into the Drugli 2023 study of 113 toddlers, the Ahnert 2004 cortisol findings on fifteen-month-olds, and what attachment research says about why kids save their worst behavior for the people they feel safest with. We also cover the curvilinear transition timeline, why week two is often harder than week one, and what behavior would actually be worth worrying about. Key sources: • Tervahartiala et al., *Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry* 2020 . — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31705206/ • Albers et al., *Stress* 2016 . — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26455788/ • Psychology Today, 2026-10-10. — https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/parenting-redefined/202610/how-to-manage-after-school-restraint-collapse Episode 5867 — myweirdprompts.com/n/5867 (permanent short link: myweirdprompts.com/785735)