3 year old suddenly crying at nursery drop off

[Mummyof3tobe]

DS is 3, nearly 4. Has been happily attending nursery since Sept and loving it. But for last week or 2 he claims he doesn't want to go, now says as we are leaving the house that he'll cry. True to his word he sobs when I go to leave him!

I firmly say "have a nice morning, I'll see you at lunchtime" give him a quick cuddle and go. It seems the longer I hang on trying to calm or reassure him the worse it gets.

Nursery teacher says he's fine after a few mins. He is happy when I collect him and chats about nice things they've done.

Any advice?

Are there any new staff? My almost 3 year old DD seems a little less confident about going to nursery since two new ladies have started working in her class. She is quite shy though and does take a while to trust new people. She has been at nursery since April and has also been saying "I don't want to go" this past week or so...

Not really new staff, though they do change around a bit from a fixed pool. He is very articulate so think he could tell me if it was something like that. He just says it is "too boring" when I asked. I told him being at home with mummy would be a LOT more boring that's for sure!

My DS went through this phase in September... It was because some of his friends has left to start big school.

Has this happened since half term? Dd1, almost three! Was very unsettled last week after a ten day half term. But back to normal this week.

I went through a similar thing with DD. She was totally fine when she started in September - she'd run off and play more or less as soon as we got there (though the school gives you 10-15 minutes to settle them), actually to the point where I was concerned that she wasn't noticing me leaving and would be upset when she turned around and I was just gone. So after a couple of weeks I started staying for longer and making a bigger deal of 'goodbye, I'll see you later'. Which had the net effect of making it masses harder for her! After a few days she was saying she didn't want to go to school and there was one huge meltdown morning where she was sobbing and clinging to me and had to be peeled off me. I actually considered taking her out of school. BUT when I picked her up she was fine, and we talked about it. We agreed that goodbyes were hard and that we would do it as quickly as possible. Since then - piece of cake. I don't even go into the classroom any longer, I just see her to the door - she runs off and doesn't look back, I don't think she even hears me say goodbye.

I think that's exactly it. Goodbyes are hard. He was much better today after 3 days of consistent,brief and cheerful goodbyes.

My DS used to do this - he would go through phases of being inconsolable at drop off. Always worse after a holiday. Just before summer (he was about 4.3) he finally was able to articulate 'I do like nursery, I just don't like the bit where we have to say goodbye...' and I think that summed it up perfectly.
FWIW, he started reception in September and has settled like a dream. I barely get a backwards glance these days so keen is he to get in!