Turns out, she didn’t cry because she thought preschool was a one-time thing. On day two, when she realized that this would be her reality for the foreseeable future, she started wailing as we said our goodbyes. I can still hear the echoing, “Don’t leave, Mommy!!!” in the depths of my soul.
My daughter’s preschool teachers were extra helpful in easing those tough moments: they outlined very clearly that drop-off happened in the cubby area, outside the classroom, and helped parents disentangle from their little clingers swiftly but kindly. Amanda Marsden, a kindergarten teacher in Cape Elizabeth, Me., said that she’s always given parents the advice to just leave quickly if their kids are crying, but now that she’s a parent too, she empathizes with how difficult that can be. “Watching your baby cry is so, so hard to just walk away from,” she said.

I called Amanda to get her professional advice about how best to support your kids through their first weeks of school if drop-offs are hairy. Here are her tips.

Check the school’s drop-off policy, if it’s possible to do so before school starts. That way you can talk to your kids about what to expect at drop-off and prepare them. “It’s important to go through the process with them, so it’s not a total shock when you’re like, ‘O.K., bye!’” Marsden said.

Make the separation quick. Many schools won’t let parents over the threshold of the classroom, and for good reason: any further in, and it can become more challenging to separate, Marsden said. While it’s certainly painful to walk away while your child is still sobbing, they’ll typically stop crying within a few minutes after you leave (cliché, but true, Marsden said). Your kid will get into the rhythm of his school day and forget about you. “The routinization is comforting,” Marsden said.

Remember that school brings a new set of emotional expectations. One thing Marsden said that really resonated with me was that, for some kids, school is the first time they are expected to be “on” during the day. The demands are much different at school than they are at home, and on some level, children are performing just as we do in the adult world. This can be emotionally draining for them just as it is for us, and understanding this may help you reframe their experience.

Offer them something reminiscent of home. If your child is still struggling to adjust after a week or so, talk to her teacher about different tactics that might calm her, Marsden said. Giving her an object that reminds her of home might help, whether that’s a family photo, a stuffed animal or a small blanket that she can take to a quiet space when she feels homesick. When my older daughter was having a rough time during the first months of kindergarten, I gave her a fuzzy key chain and told her whenever she missed me, to rub it and know that I was thinking about her.

Stay positive. It’s hard for any parent to walk away from a sobbing kid. But you have to pretend like it’s not. “If you’re showing that it’s really hard for you, kids are incredibly intuitive and emotionally in check with what you’re giving out,” Marsden said, and they will pick up on your upset. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a good cry yourself after you walk away from them, but keep that smile plastered on during the separation.

By Jessica Grose of the NY Times
Published Aug. 20, 2019
Updated Aug. 22, 2019
​https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/parenting/school-dropoffs.html