Kids following you around like sheep

[FrenchyQ]

Is anyone else getting fed up of their children following them around all the time? I'm not meaning little kids either , the main culprit here is DD21, everywhere I am she has to be, the only peace I get is if I'm in the bathroom or asleep.

Yes, Yes, YES! Arghhhghgh!!!!!!

Haha yes! We have a fairly big house with garden and all three kids have their own rooms but they choose to be next to me for their bickering.

My children are really easy, helpful, fun, capable, even tempered, humourous, obliging, lovely, I'm really incredibly lucky... So I feel awful saying it, but yes! My lovely cheerful smiley nearly 15 year old is about the most delightful teenage girl you could hope to parent but she needs so much social contact! She knows it herself. She's a people person... I love her so much but it is so hard never being alone.

I work in adult social care and am still working long shifts and feel as though I have a cape of humans at work; I usually have at least 5 young adults in their early 20s following me about. They even wait outside the toilet and outside the office/ bedroom when I do sleep-in on call nights. They didn't used to be like that, they're a fairly independent group most of whom can go out unaccompanied under normal circumstances and work in a sheltered workplace but they've all been home for 5 weeks now as about half have serious underlying medical conditions.

I haven't been alone since mid March.

Usually one reason I like shift work is the pay off of time alone in the house when everyone else is at work and school. I am really lucky to have the family I do but it's really hard never being alone.

Me 2. Behaviour has gone downhill, too. I feel guilty about my feelings but I can't breathe

I keep forgetting I have a son. He’s 14 (very nearly 15) and I have barely seen him. He gets up shortly before DH and I go to bed and goes to bed as DH and I get up.
He’s living off Easter Eggs at the moment and if there weren’t clothes in the wash box, a sink full of dishes and a pool of shower water all over the bathroom floor every morning for me, I wouldn’t even know he was there.

Oh gawd 😭 my 3 year old
does this. I was hoping it gets better with age but clearly not by the sounds of it! Drives me mental

Yes. It's driving me nuts. When I'm working she's constantly poking her head round the door saying "what can I DO?". If I go and make a cup of tea, or watch the news or look at my phone or have a phone conversation she's hovering. I feel awful saying it but its making me so claustrophobic.

Oh god yes, and its also DD21. I've taken to enthusiastically proclaiming "Oh brilliant, you've come to help me with changing the beds/mopping the floor/weeding the flowers etc". Usually makes her bugger off right sharpish for some reason.

Aw, this is nice. They love you and need your steady presence. But yes it is tough.

I think it is related to how disrupted their usual routine has been. They need to feel safe and secure. Although mine are lower primary, it isn't like the young adults can go out and pursue their interests/ careers / object of affection. So, mum it is.

Kids not at home anymore but DH follows me everywhere watching what I am doing but not doing anything himself.

My mum used to say the same about my brother. Then he moved in with his girlfriend. Now she lives alone and is free of his chatter.

My 1 and 3 year old won't let me out of their sight. Even when DH is about they follow me everywhere. There are often three of us in the (small) bathroom together. DD2 has not started nursery yet (was due to start about now) so God knows how she'll cope after this!