Separation Anxiety Girl

[billroper]

daisy_knotwise took Julie in for her belated three-year-old check up this morning. Everything's fine, although she's a little heavy for her height. On the other hand, there's a lot of muscle on that little girl for any height. We'll keep an eye on it.

Gretchen mentioned to the doctor that Julie had been being really clingy, to the extent of crying herself to sleep when she and I had gone off to see Green Lantern last week leaving her with the girl next door as a babysitter. The doctor said we should just let her continue crying, because it's a "phase" and she'll grow out of it.

So we went out to dinner tonight with marniegucciard and Bonnie. (samwinolj was supposed to come too, but he wasn't feeling well.) Julie proceeded to emote from the moment that Steph arrived until we left and thereafter. The report is that she would occasionally become distracted by whatever game she was playing and forget that she was supposed to be upset, but would eventually return to "Mommy and Daddy will be home soon."

She was quite happy to see us when we returned about 2.5 hours after we'd left, well-fed and happy with adult conversation. :)

We'll keep working on this.

Comments

[rono-60103.livejournal.com]

Back when my now 17-year-old nephew was two or three, not too long after he'd had some major surgery and so had spent a lot of time with his mother (my sister), my mom and I were babysitting with him and my now almost 15-year-old nephew allowing his mother to do some other needed stuff. (I don't recall if this was over the summer or at Christmas, but I suspect it was over the summer).

He was *MAD* that Mom had gone and Mema and a rarely seen uncle were no substitute. His temper raged for 20 or 30 minutes until he fell asleep for an hour or so. When he woke up, he was still mad and resumed his temper tantrum either until his parents finally came home, or he fell asleep a second time. Before and since, I don't think I've ever seen a kid go to sleep mad and wake up in the same state. (OK, sometimes I've seen my teenager do that, but he's a teen and that can be quite different than a toddler)

[rose1thorn.livejournal.com]

Miriam still has separation issues and she's nearly 6 years old (and it has nothing to do with me being in the hospital). Her teacher has figured out that she needs to meet Miriam at the door and bring her into the classroom or Miriam will try to follow me back to the car.

When Miriam was 3, we would drop her off at my parents and go to a movie. Miriam would either cry the entire time we were gone or fall asleep to "reset" and then be fine with my parents.

I think at this point Miriam's separation anxiety is more performance art than anything else. Here's hoping both girls outgrow it sometime before they go to college. :)