Nursery drop off question for 1yo - quick goodbye or stay and play?

[Sunrise888]

Our lo is in the middle of settling in sessions. First few were fine, but he suddenly became clingy and crying on arrival and is crying and grabbing onto our clothes when we hand him over, crying when we leave, intermittently throughout the day, also when I pick him up. 😥 He is comforted by his key worker though and will play throughout the day.

We still have a couple weeks of settling in left - how would you handle drop offs? Would you stay and play to try to make positive associations or leave quickly and let him do that with his key worker? If he's weepy throughout the day but not crying for very long, would you keep the days short?

I would leave quickly as staying just prolongs the good bye in the end. For length of day can you keep it short and then gradually longer each day until he is there the full day.

I would do quick but reassuring goodbye and short days at the start. We started with like 30 mins when DS started daycare and gradually lengthened until he ended up doing 7:30-3:30 no probs

Drop and go. It’s like ripping off a plaster. You’re just prolonging the inevitable and making it worse by hanging about.

As a childminder I would say quick . I can settle them far quicker once mum has gone .

I was always in favour of a quick drop off. Tell them you love them and that you’ll be back and off you go. You’re just prolonging it otherwise.

I’d go for quick. But if you had time at the end of the day it’s nice to stay a while in their setting, you get to know the staff a bit and how things work.

My son is 3.5 and still has to be peeled off of myself or DH at drop off. I know he's happy there though as I get photos of him on the app during the day and he always says he has had fun. I try and drop him as quickly as possible.