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<\/a>\u00a0If he sees me leave for work, he screams. \u00a0If he sees me leave the room, he screams.\u00a0 If he sees me on the other side of a closed baby gate, he screams.\u00a0 He often calms down pretty quickly if someone engages him in something else and if I can get out without him seeing me leave (I always give him kisses before I go), he does much better.<\/p>\nI hate hearing him screaming when I leave, even when I know he\u2019s in good hands. \u00a0Neither of my girls had it so bad so even though I know it\u2019s just the normal separation anxiety, it\u2019s still heart wrenching.\u00a0 Honeybun started at the childcare center with me when she was 6 weeks old and I left her a few hours a week pretty much from the start so she was very used to other people caring for her and though she showed some separation anxiety, it was never extreme.\u00a0 Sugarplum has always been great with other people and though she spent the majority of her time with me as a baby, she was always ok going with others and much like Honeybun didn\u2019t have extreme anxiety.<\/p>\n
Some people believe it’s important to let children know when you’re leaving to help with the security of the attachment and while I always do this with the girls, now that Doodle understands “bye-bye” if I say it, he watches for me to go and then loses it when he sees me go out the door. \u00a0I’ve found if I just give him a kiss on the head wherever he is and leave when he’s not looking, it reduces the chances of mass hysteria.<\/p>\n
But Doodle also has the other part of it:\u00a0 extreme elation when I return.\u00a0 He screeches in delight, flaps his hands, laughs, reaches out to me and sometimes crawls to me.\u00a0 He gets excited when I get home from work.\u00a0 He gets excited when I get him up from naps.\u00a0 He gets excited when I come out of the bathroom.<\/p>\n
While the screaming when I leave is hard I can justify it, but the coming back is sometimes the hardest part because ever since Doodle was tiny and new, he\u2019s told me \u201chello\u201d by nursing.\u00a0 Most of the time it\u2019s not a problem (though sometimes when I get home from work I have to text hubby from the garage to ask him take Doodle to another room so I can slip into the bathroom before he sees me!)\u00a0 What is irritating, though, is when he wants to nurse-hello when I wasn\u2019t really gone like when I come back from the bathroom, when I come back from getting the mail, even when I get out of the shower when he\u2019s been sitting in his saucer right outside the shower talking to me!<\/p>\n