Just last week I was faced with a screaming child grabbing onto my leg as I left the childcare centre. It is a difficult situation for any parent. How can you leave, when your child is in such obvious distress? On the other hand, how will they ever learn that everything will be okay when you’re gone, if you stay.My boy hasn’t been particularly clingy, especially as he’s gotten older. He’s been in some sort of care since he was about eight months old. Until this year it was mostly family daycare, which consists of a maximum of five children in a carer’s home.

It’s a very personal experience for both the parents and child and I’d recommend it to anyone with very young children.

This year, in our second-last year before school, we have started at a childcare centre to give our child a bit more stimulation and to prepare him for school. He does that two days a week and still checks in with his lovely day care lady one day a week.

He’s really enjoyed the new experience for the two months or so he’s been attending - until last week. Apparently our experience is not unusual. There’s a novelty value with new things that soon wears off. Then the child can go backwards for a while when they realise the set-up is an ongoing thing and that they have to go, even when they don’t feel like it.

So what did I do? Initially I said I’d stay for a little while in the vain hope that I could leave a happy child and then I wouldn’t feel guilty. But I don’t think that helped at all. In fact I think it made it worse. When I then did have to go (the train was coming!!) he was really upset as though he’d been deceived into thinking I was going to hang around.

He settled down of course but it took him a while, they told me. And of course he was fine when I saw him that evening but it was still a crappy way to start the day and I’m sure that bad taste was in his mouth a lot longer than mine.

I only hope that when it’s my turn to drop him off again in a few days, we don’t have a repeat performance. I will be sure to wax lyrcial about all his friends there and all the great activities he can do and I might even throw in a new Spiderman action figure (or his favourite “Kindy” (Kinder) chocolate) as a bribe for a happy drop off.

Pathetic, I know. But then it’s my separation anxiety as much as his!!