.png)
Remember when you started your first day of work at a new workplace? Or the time when you started on the first job? Or your first day as the freshman in your university days? Or even your first day in a secondary school after being in the same primary school for six years? As one looks back and reflects upon the many years before, one will start to realize there are more “first days” than one can ever imagine.
Even with the amount of experience with our “first days”, we still go through them with much excitement and apprehension, though with less intensity over the years. Can you imagine how daunting and scary it may be for our children, who are embracing their first day of school, maybe for the first time in their lives? Excessive fear or worry about separation from parents, exhibited by children during the first few days of the school, is termed as “separation anxiety” ("Separation Anxiety", n.d). We may have heard this term before, but what really is Separation Anxiety? And how can we help our children get through this rite of passage, to navigate through their first day of school with a positive learning experience?
What is Separation Anxiety?
We first need to recognize that separation anxiety is a normal stage in a child’s development; like other forms of anxiety, it serves the function of protecting oneself against unforeseen dangers. Children perceives their parents as their safe attachment figures, who will protect them from danger and care for their needs when needed. Hence, when this safe attachment figure is no longer around, the alarms within them will start to trigger and they started to experience this “separation anxiety”.
"We first need to recognize that Separation anxiety is a normal stage in a child’s development."
This separation anxiety will usually end when:
Children understand that his/her parent may be out of sight right now, but he/she will return later ("Separation Anxiety", n.d.) and;
There is no real danger in their current situation right now and in fact, they are being protected and cared for by another adult, namely, their teachers.
Clearing the myths about “separation anxiety”
If we allow ourselves to be really honest, it may be equally overwhelming for some of the parents, who are letting go of their child to the care of someone else for the very first time. It didn’t help when the stories parents usually hear of are about how children usually kept crying, throwing temper tantrums during the first day of school. It brings in more fear and apprehension, especially for first-time parents. As a result, we may subconsciously project our fears and anxiety upon our little ones, who may, in turn, dread this first day of school as much as we do (Eberhardt, n.d.).
Often, parents may tend to feel guilty for leaving him/her crying after saying goodbye (Eberhardt, n.d.). Parents need to understand that this journey of coping with separation anxiety is part of an individualisation process, where the child learn and grow to be an independent person (Eberhardt, n.d.). We should assist and encourage our child’s independence, rather than hinder or deprive them of it. By giving the child the opportunity to grow out of this separation anxiety on their own means may create more love instead (Eberhardt, n.d.).
"The journey of coping with separation anxiety is part of an individualisation process, where the child learn and grow to be an independent person... "