She Finally Stopped Crying – Separation Anxiety

First day of school outfit

A few months ago, we decided to enroll my 2 year old in an all day child care center. She had previously been in a home setting – family day care with about 10 kids – only 3 were within her age group but we felt she needed more. So in April, we enrolled her at TLE and every day since April she has cried. I mean the first day, no joke she cried for more than an hour, it was difficult for my husband and I to watch. We stood by the entrance of her classroom and listened until she stopped crying.  As some of the parents dropped their kids off they gave us words of encouragements, “she will be fine”, “it will takes some time”. I spent almost all day at the school that day, watching to see if she interacted with other kids, how she was received, if the place was in fact for us etc.

Her 1st day in School – Enjoying Circle Time

The next two months, I continued to stand by the entrance, hidden from view. I  listened and watched her as she cried uncontrollably.  Slowly but surely, the crying went from an hour to 10 minutes and today I can proudly say she stopped crying. It wasn’t easy though, the first three weeks, I showed up randomly throughout the day just to see how she was dealing with the transition. I would stopped by for circle time, play time, activity time, lunch time, nap time just so I can see her in her element. Yes the teacher told me how she was doing but I felt much better seeing it myself. As I investigated, I sent my husband update, so he can also rest assured that we’ve made a good decision.

Since she’s started the day care we’ve definitely seen a lot of improvement in her behavior. She’s 100 % more social, which is a good thing, because before we enrolled her she was glued to my leg no matter where we were. Mind you she was at the home setting child care for more than a year, but she just never got over her anxiety. She cried every day I dropped her off, the whole year – it was horrible. That even made the decision to pull her out, easier for us, because I couldn’t figure out why she couldn’t settle in with them. You’re probably wondering why it took us more than a year to switch child care, well everyone said it will take some time. My mom told me I cried for more than a year, I figured the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. The owner told me she was fine that once I left, she stopped crying, but I needed to see it myself.  Looking back at the last few months, I think the whole process was just as hard on us as it was on her though. Today, I am just glad its all behind us and she’s making strides at the new place and loving every minute of it.

Do you have a little one in day care? How did he or she transition?