Separation anxiety is something that affects a lot of children. It’s something that many adopted children experience often as a result of the number of moves they’ve had in their early lives which can lead to attachment difficulties and separation anxiety.
Every child deals with it in different ways. Some express their anxiety openly by crying and perhaps clinging to their parent or carer. This is what we experienced with our eldest daughter. Drop-offs at nursery were awful for the first year or so. She got really upset and often clung to me for dear life.
It was distressing for her and for me as I felt like the worst mum in the world as I drove to work. I knew she was fine by the time I got back to the car, but that didn’t make me feel any better! Because she was so open about how she was feeling, we were able to find some strategies to help like having a spray of my perfume on her wrist.
Our youngest daughter appeared to take everything in her stride so it came completely out of the blue when she started to display separation anxiety when she started school. She’d always been fine going to nursery so it took me by surprise when she was distraught at me leaving her at school.
Always There For You
One of the tools that work well with both girls is storybooks that explain about being connected to each other, even when we’re apart. So, I’m always looking for new books that deal with this subject.
“Always There For You” is written by Lalitha Yenna and is a beautiful book that helps children understand and manage their separation anxiety. This story delicately explains what it is through a beautiful conversation between a mother and her son.
Together they follow a butterfly’s journey from an egg right through to emerging as a beautiful insect, creating an engaging tale that helps the little boy understand that no matter where he goes, his mother will always be there for him.
It’s a lovely way of helping children to understand that their parents and those they love are always with them, even when they aren’t physically there. My daughter loved reading the story and learning how the butterfly happily flew away to explore the garden and then came back home to its mum.
The story helps young children understand why they feel upset or sad when their parent isn’t there and shows them how to feel ok about it.
About the author
Lalitha Yenna is a budding writer from Australia who writes short stories in her native language Telugu and English. She is a software professional and a mother of a busy toddler. Her stories reflect her experiences. Born in India and raised in a joint family, she holds family values very close to her heart and loves to write stories about them.
You can buy “Always There For You” from Austin Macauley publishers and Amazon. Please note, this is an affiliate link. That means if you click on the link to Amazon and buy it, I get paid a fee.
I was gifted an electronic copy of the book so that I could review it.
Head to the book reviews section if you’d like to find out about other children’s storybooks.
