# @juleswaller_ on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DcZtT7hz05Y
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/69498768-juleswaller-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/d2b7a1416a.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-08-23T23:50:57.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Julie Waller (Jules) | School Refusal Support (@juleswaller_) — https://gondola.cc/juleswaller_

## Caption

… it still took me years to get my daughter back to school after chronic school refusal.

You’d think the training would have made it faster. 
It didn’t. 

I still flinch when I see a call from the school number pop up on my phone (my second daughter is now in high school).

Even now, a long stretch of good mornings later, there’s a small part of me still bracing for the version of the day that used to happen.

I used to think if I could just find the right words, the right consequence, the right push, I could fix it faster. 

I didn’t know her body was running the show - not her willpower, and definitely not mine, and definitely not my degree.

I couldn’t work that year. 
Not by plan, by necessity. 

I don’t say that for sympathy, I say it because some seasons ask everything of you, and there’s no version of “doing it right” that doesn’t cost something.

There were mornings I felt like the worst mum in the world for being relieved when she stayed home, because at least the stress of it all stopped for a minute.

What I’m still learning, even from the other side of it: a nervous system doesn’t care how reasonable your argument is. 

You can’t logic a body out of alarm. 

I wish someone had told me that on day one instead of years in.

If you're in it right now - if you're bracing every morning too - tell me in the comments what you're a little embarrassed to admit about this season. 

I'll go first in the replies.

It's my mission to help you get through this faster than we did.

With love, 

Jules ❤️

#schoolrefusal #schoolanxiety #gotoschool #teenmentalhealth #schoolstress

## Stats

- **Views:** 1,794
- **Likes:** 5
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 4

## Tags

schoolrefusal, schoolanxiety, schoolstress, gotoschool, teenmentalhealth

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