Advice on leaving DD for the 1st time?

kmhunt11

DH and I are going away for a weekend for the first time this weekend.  DD will stay with our neighbor who she loves.  They also have 2 boys and 2 kittens who she loves.  DD is so comfortable with them that she will wander into their house if we're outside and not watching her closely.  Over the summer our houses were pretty much interchangeable.  I know she'll have some anxiety about being without mom and dad for 2 days and nights, so I was hoping you all had some tips about how to handle this?  I mentioned it to her today and she didn't seem thrilled about the idea, even though she asks to go over there every day.  Thanks! 

franciscaz

I travel a lot for work and I go with DH most of the time since we work together.  Two things I've noticed is:

1) Don't leave w/o saying goodbye.  Last trip we took we left at 5 am so when they woke up their nanny was there but not mom.  The whole 4 days they just balled!  I felt so horrible.  Normally if we settle them in with their Abuelita or Nanny before we go, talk to them, say good-bye... it goes easier.

2) Leave a scrap book of family pictures so their caretaker can show it to them if they start to miss you.  Now we do goodbye videos too and we skype. 

zoe_cat

With my DD it helps to talk about it a lot ahead of time, which I'm sure you're doing already.  I try to hype it up and emphasize how much fun she is going to have, and also that I will be back soon and will be so excited to see her. 

howleyshell

We just got back from our first vacation without kids since our honeymoon 7 years ago.

Ditto everyone's "say goodbye" advice.

Talk it up and make it sound like a special thing that she "gets" to stay with the neighbor instead of focusing on the fact that you're leaving.  My kids were so excited to have "special time with Grandma" (who lives several states away and they rarely see) that they almost forgot we were leaving.  If you have any idea what kinds of things they'll do while you're gone focus on that.

We talked about it a lot in advance and I made little goodie bags with a craft activity for them to do each day we were gone.   My Mom's more the "toss them in front of the TV" type and I knew that would snow ball into a grumpy little one for my youngest.  They liked having a "present" to look forward to each day.

We called each morning and evening and I honestly thought I'd get some tears out of my littlest.  Instead?  He was too busy playing to be bothered to talk with us.

It all went much better than I expected it to.

Beware though that while things went great while we were away the fall out came after we returned with the youngest being super clingy and acting out for a few days.