How to deal with mom-guilt after dropping off your crying toddler at daycare to work for a big4 :(

That drop-off guilt is painful no matter where you work! It's brutal! But socially I believe it's good for my child to be at daycare, and he'll have so many more opportunities in life because I bring in a paycheck. One caveat: if a kid is begging not to go to school each day, it might be a problem with needing different teachers!

veteran of 5 kids here.. Walk out and dont look back.. It gets better

One kiss, one hug, “love you see you after school!”, hand to the teachers and walk out. No hanging out to “ease the transition” (it doesn’t), no million extra hugs (there can always be more). Set a routine and they’ll adjust! Once you leave they almost immediately start happily playing. And it gets better as they get older (4+). And remind yourself of all the benefits your family gets from daycare (socializing for them, career mobility for you, etc).

They build so many friendships at daycare, get their immune system revved up, and really learn a lot of social and academic skills…and get to play! They’ll be okay mama!

Talk to the teacher and the staff to make sure that your child is ok shortly after you leave. It might just be a temporary thing where they don’t want to separate from you.

On the other hand, you just might want to check that there are no bullying issues. One of my kids started getting very anxious about school and not wanting to go and I later found out that she were being bullied.

It’s not just mother-fathers feel it too! I’ve been there for daycare drop off and then we transferred her to a school.

It depends on the kid, but after a week, Mazel tov!!! We’re so happy for you!! Kid was literally jumping out of my arms and running to her teachers.

I had the same problem and sometimes still do (kid in Kindergarten now). But alllll of the teachers/admins have told me that five seconds after I leave, she is totally fine, laughing, running around, and playing with friends. Don't worry!

My kids have both went through this in spurts ! My almost 2 year old is not loving it and often cries ane clings to us. My 4 year old (who was the same way when he was 2) sprints to his class and barely says bye to me lol. They get used to it and really enjoy it!

In my situations… every time my kid has cried at drop off, it’s lasted a couple of minutes, if that. They’ve always been redirected and forgotten about it while they play with toys or eat food. Stay for a second and peek your head in. Most of the time they recover pretty quickly.

Call back in 15 minutes, you’ll hear their giggling in the background

Dropping my 4 yo at preschool has been a challenge since the start of the school year. It definitely takes a toll - you’re not alone in feeling guilty! What’s helped us is emailing the teacher to check in later in the morning. Like most other parents said, the kids are usually fine after a few mins and settle down into the routine. We’ve also tried giving her stickers every morning she goes in without hysterically crying/clinging. Whether it’s positive reinforcement or bribery, I’m not sure, but she now associates drop off with something good. Hoping things get better for you!

Stay strong 💪

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Big4 are great employers in general, not sure why the guilt? 😉

Sorry, my wife and I have been through this situation but my dad brain couldn’t miss the opportunity here. 😅

Totally normal mamma! Don’t beat yourself up. Drop off guilt is a universal emotion for parents that go through it. I promise the little one is going to be just fine, needs a little bit of time to adjust maybe but overall, it will be good for kiddo and good for you. My little guy had two or three weeks of fairly difficult drop offs. Now, he runs into the room and hugs his teachers. First time that happened, drop off guilt was immediately replaced by envy. The human brain really can never be truly happy sometimes lol

I had to make the goodbyes quick because lingering always made it harder. One thing I would do for my son was if he was bummed about going in the morning, I would draw a little heart on the back of his hand and tell him that if he was missing me during the day he should look down at the heart and remember it's an "I love you" from me.

Kids have rough days some times. If they weren’t crying over this, they’d be at home crying over a broken cracker. It’s ok to work!