Toddler Rejection - A Mental Nightmare

By AdventureDad on January 27th, 2008 Print This Post Email This Post

When my wife went to Mexico 11 days ago on a ~~pleasure~~ business trip, and left me with the children, she was only worried about one thing. It was not me taking care of the kids, shopping, laundry, food, putting the kids to sleep, illness, or the kids not behaving. It wasn't even that Annika started day care this week and I had to school her in by myself. The biggest worry was meeting the kids at the airport. Would the kids ignore Sandra, feeling disappointed about her "deserting" them, and refuse to be with her? This happened once before and was one of the worst memories my wife ever experienced.

When our son was 13 months old my wife went for a 5 day trip to Germany, not knowing that her return would forever be remembered. As she excitedly saw Daniel at the airport he looked into her eyes and simply ignored her. He wanted to be with me. And only me. No big deal we thought. This can happen and will probably we fine within a few hours. It took 5 freaking days until he accepted his mommy again.

My wife still remember this incident very well today. I guess it's a nightmare scenario for a parent. To be snubbed and ignored by your own child. We knew his little protest would only last a short while and we also knew this happens to many other parents. Daniel was also very young and just reacted on instinct. It was still a very tough experience for my wife.

Will this occur again when we pick mommy up at the airport? It will for sure not be a problem with our 4-year old son. He knows very well mommy just went aways on a trip. As for Annika, I guess she could feel a little rejected but she's already a fiercely independent toddler. If she pulls the the same stunt as Daniel once did, we're in trouble….

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Categories: Annika, Daniel, Travel
Tags: day care, germany, mexico, Parenting, parents, rejection, Sandra

3 Responses to “Toddler Rejection - A Mental Nightmare”

tracy ho on Jan 31st, 2008 at 9:53 am

love it,

Good Luck ,

Tracy Ho
wisdomgettingloaded
Nisha on Jan 31st, 2008 at 2:40 pm

So what happened? Any displays of toddler rejection from either of the kids?
Ina Juan on Feb 1st, 2008 at 10:53 am

When our daughter Lia was about 14 months old, my husband Mike and I went on a sort of second honeymoon together in Indonesia for 9 days. I was so worried that Lia would forget us, or reject us when we got back, so we made a short video of ourselves where we just basically said, we love you and miss you and we’ll be home soon. She watched it every night before sleeping and again every morning when she woke up. When we got home, she was very happy and excited to see us. We don’t know if it was because of the video, but we were relieved.

I hope everything goes well when your wife gets home.

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