Separation anxiety

This morning, I was explaining to my husband why I did not want to go grocery shopping before work.  "I don't want to leave the groceries in the hot, hot car all day long."  A minute or so later, my son came over, wrapped himself around my leg and said, "want to go in hot, hot car with mommy!"  Then, "mommy take me in hot, hot car!  Want hot, hot car"  It did kind of touch my heart that my son was willing to go in a hot, hot car, just to be with mommy.  He's probably the only human I know who would be ecstatic to get into a hot, hot car with me.  I'm pretty sure my husband wouldn't be that enthusiastic.

His schedule has been kind of varied lately with travel, and some increased days at daycare after several days of not going to daycare.  I'm sure this all puts some stress on him as one of the best things you can do for a toddler is have a reliable, routine schedule.  Life is not always like that though.

I have told you previously how my son and cat share a bond.  She has separation anxiety too.  She gets upset when her 60 lb canine buddy leaves to go for a walk.  I don't need to go into details of what she does when we even take a weekend trip.  I used to think her behavior was spite, or passive aggression.  I've always known of dogs with separation anxiety (they can engage in such destructive behavior that I have known them to break out of kennels, tear apart dry wall and door frames.)  They can do all sorts of "bad behavior" when it's just a case of extreme anxiety.

Fortunately, I think what my son is going through is just a normal phase.  I had tried a tip from a parenting magazine.  It was that once Daddy drops off the child at daycare, if the child did well on the car trip, they can text mommy smiley faces to let her know how good they've been.  That kind of backfired.  I'm really glad that my husband is the one who does most drop-offs at daycare as I don't think I could have the fortitude to make it.  I suppose I can relate to some of my patients who so long for their family they go crazy.  But you won't find me eating any drywall or breaking a door frame anytime soon.