2Yr Old Starting New Daycare

make sure you ask her teacher how long she is crying after you leave. if she is crying for a long time, like over an hour or on and off through the day, you may have to find another daycare situation because she is obviously uncomfortable in the current one. but if she stops crying ten to 20 min after you leave, all you can do is give her a big hug and kiss, say good buy and leave quickly. the longer you try to pacify her the harder it will be on both of you. you can always call the daycare about 20 min after you leave to check on her. most likely they will say that she is playing and doing fine.

My daughter would also cry when I left. We started arriving a bit earlier and I would spend some time talking to her, her friends and her teacher. That seemed to make her more comfortable but it did take a little time. We also talked about who would pick her up and when they would be there. She does so much better now.

Hi there - what you're doing to ease the transition already sounds great. I think in general starting a new daycare has to be a transition, and there's no way around it. My son is almost two and is now in his second daycare. At each place he screamed when I dropped him off for the first two weeks, and it was really hard, but then he adjusted just fine. Now he LOVES his daycare and actually doesn't even want to leave sometimes when I go to pick him up! The only other thing I can think of is now that your daughter is 2 and can understand some things, maybe talk to her casually when you're at home just doing regular stuff about how much fun "school" is, and how nice the teachers are, etc. Hope that helps, and hang in there :)

I started my daughter in daycare when she was about 16 months old and she also cried to start with when I left her. It took her a little while, but she eventually got to where she didn't cry when I left her. Have you talked with the daycare? Does she calm down after you leave? If she's anything like my daughter, she probably calms down soon after you leave. I know its hard leaving her crying, but I bet she calms down soon after you leave and has a great time at daycare!

Same thing with my now 3 year old. I started him at a preschool when he was 2 and 1/2. It killed me to drop him off crying and carrying on but the teacher told me as soon as I'm out of sight, he did fine. He soon got used to it and is now happy to go! It's just a matter of her getting used to the routine probably. Hang in there! It gets better!

My son has been in daycare since he was 12 weeks old and he still goes through periods of time where he cries when I leave. Once I leave, he is fine. He loves the school and it is a great program. How is she when you pick her up? I would give it some time to resolve itself. One thing I would say, though, is don't linger. The longer the goodbye is the harder it is on her. My tendency is to stay behind until he calms down, but it just makes things worse. Tell her you love her and to have a great day. Maybe even give her a task like, "Will you help mommy open the door?" or "Can you show me where to put your coat?" That might give her more ownership of the situation. Good luck to you. I know it is hard but you are a good mother.

My daughter started daycare @ 22 months when I returned back to work, and at first she would cry a lot. But either myself or my husband (whomever dropped her off) would look at the monitors to see that she did stopped crying after we left. I would give her a hug and a kiss before I left,and actually hand her over to the teacher. The teacher consoling her helped a lot.If your daycare doesn't have monitors, stand outside the door and listen without her seeing. Now, my dau loves daycare and does not want to miss any days for the world. I have seen a major difference in her social skills since she started daycare and interacting with other kids.

You say this child HAS a father that could be with her and take care of her.Why isn't he?This child is only 2 yrs. old!!!I can imagine that she's feeling very abandoned,thus very angry.A child should be in the home with her family until she's at least 3 yrs. old,if not older.I will not apologize for the way I feel about this.I feel sorry for this little girl.And even worse for her sorry father.Sorry to be so abrupt about this and I'm sure not attacking you J..Just I feel that her father should be a little more responsible for his own child. The reason I'm responding this way is that I worked in a daycare for awhile and there was one small child,about 2 I'd say and they made her stay in a crib cause she cried all day every day I was there.The workers there told me not to tell the parents when I so expressed a desire to do so.I had to quit working there because of this.I think I did try to report this issue to someone.Nobody seemed to care.How sad!!I would pick her up and hold her and comfort her the best I could.I even cried with her.I so wanted to help her and I felt so helpless.It's been so long ago,but I think I did wait until her parents came to pick her up and I waited outside for them when they picked her up and said something to them about it.Then I told the daycare that I quit.They didn't want me there after that.Daycares back then were not monitored like they are today.That was about 1977.This daycare was off of Cherokee Road in Louisville.Something I'll never forget. With love, S. L.