Should I be worried or is she just 2?

[capecodder]

My DD is 2.5yrs and has been attending preschool since she was 6 months.

She seems to have a lot of friends and enjoys going. Often she cries a bit when I drop her off but know that by the time I reach the reception area (which has a video camera) that she is playing.

However, over the past month she becomes hystrical at the mention of pre-school and begs not to go. She sometimes hides in a closet when we're getting ready to go and can be unconsolable when I drop her off.

I've spoken to the manager and she knows of no problems or issues that have occured. She actually seemed quite surprised as my daugther seems happy and well adjusted after the inital drop off.

I watch her before I pick her up and she looks totally happy and says she wants to go back the next day.

Can anyone please help as I am finding this situation confusing and stressful!

The odds are that she just hates saying goodbye to you.
Is she used to staying anywhere else without you or her dad -- how does she react then?

Its not quite the same but my DS (2.3) goes to a creche for an afternoon a week and I struggled to get a goodbye from him but now he screams and clings to me. After I leave he settles quickly and if he didn't they would phone me to come and get him but they never have. He is always playing happily when I go and pick him up.

He was also like it when I dropped him off at my nans recently where he loves going so I'm putting it down to a slight clingy phase.

I think she looks happy and copes because she has to

I think if you don't respond to her begging and being inconsolable, she will suffer.

Ds1 was like this - he hated being left, he coped, but it was at a huge cost. He just wasn;t ready to leave me - he didn't have the tools, emotionally. I was pregnant and ill which made him more insecure.

He is nearly 7 and still has huge separation anxiety issues as a result. Please, please take a moment and reconsider whether she needs to be there - you are giving her a fairly harsh message if you ignore her screams. I don't want to sound alarmist or critical, at all - been there, done that and I know now that I would not do the same again, ie making him go.(I took him out after a few weeks/months)
Btw he waltzed into school, half a year later, without any problems. He just needed to be ready.