3 year old crying / having a melt down at nursery drop of

[Lalaxo]

My 3 year old started nursery in September and he absolutely loved going in. The 1st few times I didn't even get a goodbye from him as he ran straight in and he has always been so excited and happy coming out as well.

Last week he started crying in the morning saying he didn't want to go (we had been on holiday so I had just put it down to this) and the next day he went in fine

Yesterday I dropped him of, he said he didn't want to go but he didn't get particularly upset like last week. Yesterday he came out of nursery very happy and was all excited to tell me and my husband about his day

This morning he kicked of and was absolutely hysterical. He was lying in the floor, crying, shouting and holding onto the gate. A member of staff had to come out and carry him in. I didn't want to make a big deal with him about it as it would have made him worse but it really upset me. I rang the nursery about an hour later and they said he was fine and he was playing, but I was just concerned about how worked up he got.

He is a very confident child and I've never had issues with him when he's been away from me before.

Is this normal? How can I encourage him to be more excited going in, like he was in the beginning?

Any advise welcome

Thank you

Very normal in my experience. My three year old has been going to nursery for two years. Some days he's fine, some days he's running in and pushing us out the door to go, some days he's hysterical.

@mynameiscalypso thank you for your reply, this has made me feel much better about it. Can't hell but feel so guilty when he's in such a state

It does make you feel awful doesn't it? Like you though, the nursery are ways able to reassure me that he's fine within 10 mins. It's not that unusual for it to happen with other kids at drop off too especially when there's some big change in their life.

@mynameiscalypso I did think he could be possibly copying other children that were crying at drop of as well! But the scene he caused this morning was jsit horrible.

And what makes it worse is when certain mothers like to stare 😔 where ever I am now and I hear / see a child screaming /shouting I just turn my head and ignore and I know how awful it can be when people stare

My Dd cried (occasionally) for years at drop off, up to age 6 she was still a bit wobbly at school. She's nearly 8 now and still prefers to go in with a friend or lingers to keep giving me 'one last hugs' at the gate.

My DS is 3 and has just started preschool. He's coping much better than she did.

I'm afraid I'm probably being an awful mum but I often say to him in the mornings 'what snack do you want me to bring when I pick you up today?' and when he says, if it's a real treat like a mini pack of Haribo, I say If you go in really nicely today I'll bring some Haribo for you...
Perhaps this is going to have some awful stunt on his emotional development but it works and he has coped with it much better than DD.

It's really difficult seeing them so upset. Try to be breezy, Oh you'll have a great day, can you draw me a picture today? What are you going to draw me? A tree? A cat on a surfboard? A carrot riding a horse?!
They all get there in the end.