Separation anxiety for 3yo (and me)

[HappyLoveMama]

My DS is 3 and has never been "dropped off" anywhere. The only thing we have done is left him with my mom and dad for mommy and daddy date night for a few hours.

He knows school is coming because we talk about it a lot but I don't know if he truly understands what is going to happen. It's 3 days a week for 2.5 hours. My fear is that he will cry and I understand that's normal. He goes to speech therapy now which separates us for a half hour and he does fine. There were one or two instances where he cried and didn't go in the room with the therapist. She suggested he just go back there and just work it out. That killed me! We never did CIO. So that was really difficult for me to listen to and that lasted a mere 3 minutes until I went back there and grabbed him. He clung to me and passed out on my shoulder.

School is another story though. Am I supposed to leave if he is crying?

[MCsMom]

I would not leave my crying kid at school, no way, no how. And certainly not at 3. I would stay till they were OK with it, or we would leave. And if the school was not OK with me staying, he would not be staying either.

[Tjej]

When my DD realized that going to preschool meant going without me or her brother she did not like the idea. She had thought we were going to stay. She really didn't want to do it, and she was only 3 and I had no need to have her do it, so we just didn't do it last year.

This year she is interested, but still hesitant. I am not 100% sure what we will do in the fall, but for now I talk about it happily (that it is fun and remind her of the people she knows who will go). I'm also considering homeschooling, so I am reconsidering the whole idea of preschool anyway, but that is another thread!

Tjej