Transition to preschool

[roxemama]

I WOHM and my DH works from home. My parents have been caring for DD but have left for 4 months to help my sister who just had another baby. DD started preschool full time this week and the week prior it was a few hrs a day. For the last 2 days she has been crying hysterically when DH tries to leave. He'll wait with her for 30 min but it doesn't seem to help. The teachers will hold her and will take her outside and she will soon stop crying. As DH drives around to make sure before completely leaving. Also, she crys when he picks her up at 5. I assume because she misses him. During the day, we'll check in and she seems calm. How long did it take your LO to be "ok" with being left at preschool? Anything I can do to make it easier?

[roxemama]

The teacher said she had a child and it took him 3 weeks to get adjusted. I don't think I can handle it. I wish I could be a SAHM.

[ALittleBitCrunchy]

It really depends on the child. DS started daycare at 2 and walked right in and never had a problem. 5 years later, he still does great and doesn't think twice about it. My DD started daycare around 18 months and the transition was harder. In fact, 4 years later and she still misses us a lot during the day. She's an intense kid with intense emotions while he is laidback and easy-going. For us, quick transitions were easiest. We'd tell her it was a daycare day, we'd remind her in the car, we'd tell her we would be there for 5 minutes, we'd remind her, then we would drop her off and be gone in 5 minutes. Routines help a lot, as do super-special only-at-dropoff things, like leaving something with her, such as a business card or a bracelet, or (since she loves drawing tattoos on herself) taking a minute to draw a picture on her somewhere, or writing my phone number on her hand - basically, things she could look at and be reminded of us. We also had a super-hug where she would run across the room and I'd grab her and spin around twice so she could 'fly'. It's been different things through out the years, but it's always helped.

[roxemama]

I can't take it anymore. She's not happy there and it's spilling over into her moods at home. I'm interviewing nannies this weekend and the $ will come. This is worse than going to work after maternity leave.

[erinsmama]

It took my dd 2 weeks to fully adjust & now she's doing great! She cried though every day for 2 weeks when I would drop her off. Now she gets excited & says "Play" "Fun" on the way to school in the morning. She waves me out the door before I'm even ready to leave...

You know what's best for your dd, but most of the teachers say it can take the little ones up to a month sometimes to adjust. Maybe she needs a little more time?

[Polliwog]

I'm an early childhood specialist and former teacher. It doesn't sound like your DD isn't happy at all. It takes some children longer to adjust in the mornings. If the staying with her isn't helping, he might want to stay for just a few minutes. She may be just waiting for him to leave and have no real concept of when that is. She's fine in a little while after he's gone. She's fine when you call. And it is soooooo normal for children to cry when they see their parents at the end of the day. Heck, my DD used to do it. It hurts, but I know it's a common thing. Later on, she might not want to leave at the end of the day. That's normal, too.