A number of preparations roll out as you gradually take steps to send your child to a childcare facility – while you join a job or business out of your home. To work with complete peace of mind and full focus, you may have to adjust to those few hours of separation when your toddler stays in a daycare. It’s agonizing for you, surely. But more than you, it’s an agony for your kid. That is why you must ensure that you prepare your kiddo some days ahead before going to the childcare home. This will ensure that your tiny tot does not throw tantrums, skip meals in shock and separation anxiety, and get ill or hyper.
Most parents dread this situation when their child may get out of control in several ways by being either too quiet or too hyper. They also fear that daycare givers may just put up their hands. To avoid this situation, you must get your kid ready just like you would do before sending him/her to school for the first time. Sometimes, it’s not only about toddlers but also about little grown-up kids too, who have to manage a few hours at daycare. Here also you need to take the same precautionary measures to ensure total compatibility of the child with the childcare home.
Steps to prepare your kid for childcare
- Do not tell your kid to hurry. Telling the kid to hurry in waking up, bathing, taking breakfast, dressing up, wearing shoes, taking bags and so on would only stress him/her more. Who knows, he/she may think that you are just trying to get rid of him or her as soon as possible. Not quite true, but you never know what runs in a kid’s mind. Hence, take time and let things happen. Allow the first day to pass by being calm and organized. You may organize all the needed things a day or night ahead to avoid this hurry or stress.
- Even though you are in agony within, do not show that in front of your kid. Let your negative thoughts not create a disturbance within your kid’s mind.
- Sometimes, giving a sign of yours with your child can be comforting for him to cope up. When your toddler misses you, he can clinch on to your sign or usable item to feel your closeness. This may be needed for just a few initial days until the kid gets accustomed. A picture, a hanky, a scarf with your perfume, etc. can be of help.
- Practicing the goodbye, a ritual can help. When every day you set a time, do things in a pattern before your child departs. Then the message goes clear to the mind of your kid that it’s goodbye time. Slowly, he/she would absorb it and come into the routine.
- While you leave your child for a full day or few hours in the daycare, it’s vital that you also bestow your trust on the caregiver. If you stay anxious, your child care would absorb your vibes and it may affect him. But when you put on a warm smile with assurance on your daycare facility and caregiver, the same belief and confidence radiate on to your child too. The kid would be much stable and confident with time.
- A special food that your kiddo loves, like a favorite cookie, jam, a toy, a drawing book, or something that the kid loves the most to play with or nudge on, can be accompanied with the kid till the time the child copes up and adjusts.
These steps would slowly prepare you as the parent or guardian and the kid also, in the same way, to spend a happy and contended time without tantrums or problems at the daycare.
What do you think?
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