DD1 (3.6) was alway happy to go to anyone, went to nursery at 8m part time and loved it from day 1. She's had a number of childcare changes and has taken them all in her stride, pottering off without a second glance back. DD2 is a different kettle of fish. She's now 18m and has always disliked being seperated from me. She goes to a childminder 2 short days and is now very happy there (it took a lot of time and effort and many abortive sessions to get to this stage) although she still sometimes cries when I actually leave. The CM is the only person I can leave her with apart from DH (luckily she'll occasionally babysit so we can go out!)- she would get completely hysterical if left with someone else even if she knew them.
The situation's not a problem for us, but I wonder if I should be doing anything to help her cope better away from me. She's actually a very confident child in many ways, and is happy to go to groups as long as either the CM or I are there. Having watched the traumas of some of my friend's kids settling in to pre-school, I was wondering if there is anything I could do to try and pre-empt that situation. I was wondering about trying her at a creche or something for short periods regularly over the next year. Do you think that would help her become more confident, or just create unnecesary stress? My gut instinct if to just leave things be until pre-school and manage the situation then, but equally if I can do anything to make things less traumatic I'd like to consider them.
Any thoughts welcome!