Trouble adjusting to child care

[vdowsett]

About 2 months ago I joined a gym specifically so that I can have some time out from being a stay at home mom.  I live in the US with no family in the country, and haven't had time away from the children for 6 months.  My 3 year old adjusted fine with going to the childcare center, however my 1 year old cries the entire time he is there.  This has resulted in me being paged to pick him up each time I go to the gym, roughly 20 minutes into my exercise.  Every time I go I'm stressed out, and I spend the entire time waiting to be paged.  I really do not want to give up going to the gym, I need to have a time in the day away from the children to get energized again.  I would really appreciate some advice on what I can do to help my 1year old to adjust to child care.

[RockRose]

You sound isolated - can you join a mom's group and trade off child care for a couple hours?  Can you go to the gym in the evening when your husband is home?

[LRM1021]

There are certain stages during child development where a child goes through periods of extreme separation anxiety when the primary caregiver leaves. Generally, these are just stages. They are generally between 14 and 20 mos of age.  My suggestion to you is to find a sitter that will come to your house when you want to go to the gym-- because it seems like the gym day care personnel are not comfortable with the level of distress your child is feeling while you are gone-- and then once your child passes this stage, you can go to the gym and place the child there while you exercise.