There’s a particular kind of dread that settles in on Tuesday mornings. A child picks at their breakfast, mentions a stomach ache, and when you ask what’s wrong, they say maths is first period. For many parents this scene feels familiar, even if they can’t quite put a name to what’s driving it. The child isn’t making excuses. Something about numbers has become, over months or years, genuinely frightening, and the avoidance that follows is its own compounding problem.
