Search Results for: blog separation anxiety at four

Teen Anxiety Linked to Parent-Infant Relationship

Parents want the very best for their baby. They put a great deal of effort into understanding what their baby needs and making sure that he or she gets it. Things change a bit when a child turns into a teenager and becomes difficult. Now, many parents are bewildered by the behaviors they see in their teen. When did the teenager become so nervous? It turns out that the quality of the parent-infant relationship is linked to teen anxiety. A study was done that involved 165 European-American children. These kids were from middle to upper-middle-class families. Each child was recruited … Continue reading →

Separation Anxiety

My ex is really good about having our son call and tell me goodnight when it’s his turn to have him every other weekend. He knows of the strong bond my son and I have and also knows that we will both sleep better if we have had a chance to tell each other goodnight first. It’s usually a short call. We talk about the things he did that day; we talk about what he ate for dinner; we talk about how fun it will be to sleep over at Dad’s house that night; but most of all this talk … Continue reading →

Separation Anxiety at Four?

It was the fall of my daughter’s second preschool year. We were all set. We knew what we were doing. We knew the teachers and we loved them too. Aside from some small initial anxiety, at three years old my daughter had sailed into the classroom with excitement, happy to be playing with other children and joyful to see her beloved teacher. It was all good, simply the beginning of another school year. And yet it was not. For three months at the beginning of her second year of preschool, my daughter did not want to go. She loved her … Continue reading →

Four Pets, Four Reactions to Stress

Moving is stressful for humans AND pets. It’s been interesting to watch how the animals react as my roommates and I go through the moving process. I have two dogs: Moose (a shepherd mix) and Lally (a boxer mix). They have two cats: Kachiko (a snowshoe Siamese) and Shiro (a big grey fellow). Each of the animals has reacted differently to the disruption in the routine. Shiro has earned his nickname: “chicken boo”. The move has sent him into hiding — he spent his first day in the new apartment squished into the corner of the closet. Slowly he’s come … Continue reading →

The Pets Blog Week in Review for July 21-27

What did Aimee and I write about during the last full week of July? In case you’re wondering because summer vacation plans kept you away from the computer, here’s the Week in Review recap. Monday, July 21 Just how much does your pet influence your lifestyle? Do you even know? Or are you well aware of their impact? Because of Aimee’s experiences with her own dogs, she learned about inflammatory bowel disease in pets and passed her knowledge on to us. Tuesday, July 22 I explained why I am absolutely loving “The Greatest American Dog!” Apparently Aimee’s become the crazy … Continue reading →

Parents Get Separation Anxiety Too

Attachment and Separation are one of the ongoing struggles of the parent-child relationship. I am of the opinion it is one of the most intense, amazing, joyful and painful relationship bonds and attachment/detachment dances we are called upon to do in our entire lives. We often talk about young children experiencing “separation anxiety” when they are forced to be apart from their parents. But, I think that we parents experience plenty of separation anxiety too. I remember that I was one of those first-time parents who were completely surprised by the overwhelming strength of my attachment to my eldest daughter … Continue reading →

More Filters to Change

Just when I think I could possibly be getting on top of things, along comes something else. I’m running horribly behind this month due in part to a dog I rescued who has terrible separation anxiety. That one little thing is making every day a cleaning nightmare, if she is left in the house, she tears up everything in sight, if she is put in a crate she drools so much from anxiety that a river meets me when I get home. The joys of having a pet. Anyway, on to the point of this post, I thought I had … Continue reading →

There Were Two in the Bed

Lately the little nursery rhyme “Ten in the Bed” keeps coming to mind. Every night it seems, “There were two in the bed and the little one said ‘Roll over, roll over!’ So they all rolled over and one fell out!” Almost every night this week Logan has ended up in Mommy’s bed and inevitably Mommy ends up falling on the floor! At first it was just nightmares, but after the first few nights he realized how much he liked sleeping in Mommy’s bed. He did this when my ex and I first separated too. He was afraid of losing … Continue reading →

Teething Pets

If you’re thinking of getting or currently own a puppy or kitten three-months-old or younger, then you’re soon in for a somewhat bizarre experience: teething. Puppies begin losing their baby teeth around four or five months old, and kittens also do so around the same time. Though sometimes later; my cat didn’t start teething until six months or so. I said bizarre experience because although it makes perfect sense that pets would lose their baby teeth and grow adult ones just like humans, I didn’t quite anticipate it when first adopting a puppy. I prepared for all the things I … Continue reading →

First Day

Gulp. Today we’re off to our first day of somewhat school. I say somewhat school because it’s a play-based alternate program, so it’s not quite school, even though it is in a building and there are teachers and children there. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is a good fit for us. We are homeschooling, but I want my daughter to go somewhere similar to her preschool to play with other children a couple of times a week while I work. The school that we are attending is a democratic school. A democratic school is run by a … Continue reading →