Toddler doesn’t seem to want to come home from nursery?!

[Anonymousmummmy]

My LB is 20 months and goes to nursery full time 5 days a week. He started there about 2/3 months ago after previously being at a different nursery, and he seems to absolutely love it (apart from not ever napping there which isn’t great and makes our evening challenging). Anyway, he recently (last few weeks) started doing this thing where whenever I go to pick him up from nursery, he runs away from me and will hide in the corner! And if I go over to him and pick him up or try and give him a cuddle, he pushes me away and arches his back and kicks. It makes me feel super sad because I’m so excited to see him each day after work😢 I completely appreciate he’s only a little toddler and his emotions are all over the place, and he’s probably had an epic day doing all kinds of fun and amazing things with his friends, but is this kind of reaction normal? I miss him running up to me all excited at the end of nursery like he used to; happy to see me🥲

Totally normal! Their concept of time is so nebulous, it may feel to him like you haven't been gone all that long and he still has so many things to play with! It must feel hurtful though - try to think of it as he is so happy at nursery. Maybe he isn't ready for a cuddle immediately - how about offering your hand to hold and walk out of the room with him? It'll change soon, especially if he's moving rooms when he turns 2, he'll be happy to see you again in no time.

Very normal, my son went through a phase of not wanting to come home either. Sometimes he would burst into tears and sob, "I want to stay at nursery!"

He's now back to running into my arms when I arrive.

Toddlers, man.

Very normal, as per the 2 previous comments.

A lot of Nurseries realised how much easier it is (during Covid, hen they had to) to bring the child out of the room themselves and hand over in the foyer / at the door rather than parents going in to the room, to avoid this exact situation.

Totally normal.

DD2 used to run to the nursery door and try and block me opening it if she saw me coming. She’d shout “no mummy, no, not yet mummy, go away!”.

The nursery staff would politely try not to laugh as it was mega loud as Dd was a tad dramatic as a child. At first I was heartbroken. Then embarrassed. Then just amused by the fact DD1 would run over like I had left a month ago, rather than a few hours, and DD2 was like that!

What I've noticed is that the children who do longer days or full time are more likely to behave like this. You'd expect them to be the ones desperately pleased to see parents and go home! They also become incapable of doing anything for themselves such as put on shoes even though they've done it several times that day independently to go in the garden.

Toddlers are very strange.