Preparation anxiety
While we are still quite a ways away from December 1st (oh, humour me, will you?) November is just around the corner, which is when we are enrolled to start Day Care. Even though I'm not going back to work until December, Tim and I knew that it would be hard on all 3 of us if we didn't ease into the whole separation thing. So although the day care center's policy is that children under 2 are not eligible for "part time" tuition (ie, we need to pay the full tuition even if we're not having her in there 5 days a week, or even if we're only keeping her in for a half day or less) we'll be bringing Baby Girl to day care part time starting in November.
The first couple of visits I'm planning will only be a couple of hours, and I will be there with her. Then we'll try a couple of hours without me there, and then a half day... and towards the end of november we'll try a couple of full days. I will try and deal with the separation by spending the couple of hours at the gym working up a sweat as well as my heart rate. I doubt it will prove to be an effective distraction, but it's bound to help a bit.
Of course, in December when we start in for real, when Tim's not working Baby Girl will be at home with him while I'm at work.
Anyway, all of this is leading up to tell you that today Baby Girl and I stopped by her day care for the first time together. We stayed for about 20 minutes and hung out in the infant room. There were 6 other babies there. Most of them were between 8 and 11 months. Baby Girl will be the youngest in her "class". There is one other baby there under 8 months, a boy, who is just 1 month older than Baby Girl.
Yes, dear friends and family, Tim actually stopped what he was doing and raised an eyebrow when I told him there was a baby boy just a month older than Baby Girl in her room at the day care. Oh Baby Girl, I don't envy you asking us for permission to go out on your first date! It will be an emotional time for all of us. Although Tim says it will be made easier by the fact that she'll be 30 and not living at home when it happens. ;-)
So this evening I'm going through the Parent's Handbook and filling out all the required forms... and trying not to get ahead of myself by getting emotional about it. Once I'm done, that's it - no more thinking about it until we have to :-)
Comments
Hmm. I am going through a similar thing crate training Dexter. I left him in it for a while with me in the room. Then with me doing stuff in the house, and finally for a little while when I wasn't around. Yesterday I left him for 3 hours while I went to work, came home for lunch for 3 hours, and went back to work for 3 hours (I took some vacation time). Today I cut my lunch time visit down to an hour. That will be pretty much standard I think. I am told that the key to separation anxiety is to try to get them used to the idea that you will always be coming back, and having "cues" or "rituals" associated with the departure so that they can prepare for it.
Posted by Sarah on October 4, 2005 11:21 AM.Good luck!