Separation Anxiety

I think Thomas is right. He read a bunch of stuff this weekend and decided Meg is going through a period of separation anxiety. Its just not exactly like what you normally think of as separation anxiety. She isn’t attached to one person in particular – like her mommy – she is just terrified of being left alone. When I drop her off at daycare, she’s fine. I stand by the door saying “Mommy’s leaving! Wave bye-bye to Mommy!” Half the time she ignores me and the other half she gives me a look that says “Fine, whatever. If you’re going to leave, just do it already. I’m too busy playing for all this bye-bye nonsense.”

But if we’re at home, she must have me in her sight at all times. If she’s playing and I leave the room, she freaks out and comes running after me. To reduce the likelihood of Mommy leaving the room unnoticed, she’s constantly clinging to me. She would prefer to be on my lap or in my arms at all times. If I put her down to, say, make myself lunch or even make her a bottle, she tries to climb my legs. If I walk away, she dramatically collapses on the floor and weeps about the injustice that is her life. Also, she wants 100% of my attention. She’ll sit next to me if I’m reading her a book, but if I give her a book to read to herself and start reading my grown-up book, she tries to knock it out of my hands.

If I’ve been at work all day, I can handle this for about 2 hours. But then I lose. my. mind. I’ve decided it’s a good thing I’m not a SAHM. The scary thing is, Thomas is going out of town this weekend (leaving Saturday afternoon, coming back Monday morning). I have made the executive decision that when mommy really really needs a break, Meg will be introduced to Veggie Tales from Netflix on Demand. Short of just dropping her off at my mom’s house, I don’t see another way to retain my sanity.