Grandma, where's Mummy gone

Used to tell my daughter to walk out backwards. That worked .

Do they live nearby? Or near enough for frequent visits between now and September?
Do you have your toys/books ready? And is your local park near enough?
Ooh so exciting. . . .but you have to judge how DGC is, for example, when Mummy goes out of the room even to start with before deciding how to say "Mummy's at work" whether at their house or yours. I personally, at that age, wouldn't have DGC see Mummy leaving.
Just distract him/her with an exciting toy at the time and then, if upset, perhaps scoop them up into pushchair and off to the swings!

"Sparking"????? Where did that come from?
Saying that.......
Sorry!

Well she's not going to be sparking that at 10 months!!
My DGS aged 1 used to just wave bye bye mummy/daddy the morning I used to look after him before he went to nursery.
I you have her for short visits now? If not, time to start!
Bye bye then something she enjoys to distract her should be fine at her age, a book, music, a favourite toy/duplo, bricks or some sort of other floor activity. What time will it be? What is she doing the other days? Nursery? Take a lead from them perhaps.
It will be fine!

By the way you lot, as well as being a new Grandma I am new to Gransnet. Love it!

I will certainly bear that in mind, they will be leaving a stroller at my house for the nap lulling walks morning and afternoon, a few mins hopefully will be enough to distract while the car disappears.

My grandson went through a stage of crying for his Mum when he was much that age and we were babysitting. We soon worked out that as long as he didn't see the front door (that he obviously knew had something to do with the folks' disappearance) he was fine.

He has several favourite spots around my house and he heads straight for them when he gets here - usually involving turning knobs (washing machine) and pushing buttons (stove timer and Sky box). Once he has done the rounds of button pushing he heads for the toy drawer. He is 2 now.

He also loves fridge magnets.

Good luck.

They are all different and respond in different ways.

We found that it was good to have the child visit lots before the day of leaving came. My DGC came round a lot with their Mums and got the lie of the land - knew where the toys and the books were - and where the biscuits were hidden!

With both of one of my DD's children they started to come to me individually one day a week at about 10 months, and to start with they were a bit wan, but by then I knew which of our toys was likely to be a hit, so I would get that out and sit with them to play with it. Both spent the first couple of hours of the first day sitting on my lap with a toy I knew they liked....then they gradually ventured further afield....and now!....I wish they would just sit on my lap!

It is good to have some familiar things that they always bring with them - cups, soft toys, snacks etc.

They have settled fine now - but they are exhausting in a big way!

I looked after GS1 from 6 months and don't remember it being much of a problem. GS2 was a year old and he hated Mummy leaving. He would go into the bedroom and scream. After about 15 minutes he would decide that someone had to look after him so it would have to be me and the rest of the day would be fine.

When eldest D's was a little one (he is actually 38 today ) we found that he preferred "leaving" rather than being left.

To explain, if my mother was looking after him, he was far better if she collected him from our house, rather than us dropping him off at hers.

I think it might be that if he left us, he would think that we were staying where we were, I.e. at home, but if we dropped him off and walked out of the door, he couldn't "place" us.

Does that sort of make sense?

Tell him the truth that his mum has gone to work. I have a litle piece I chant with my GS (now 20 months). It goes "Daddy's gone to work, Mummy's gone to work, * (his big sister's name) has gone to school. ***(his name) stays with Granny. When I say the last words I always squeeze him and give him lots of kisses. It breaks up any upset feelings and has him giggling away in moments. Once I start he keeps saying "Again". We always wave goodbye and I then look out a favourite toy or book to keep him busy. Good luck. It is tiring but so much fun and so rewarding.

I would suggest putting little one in their prom/buggy and taking them for a walk leaving Mum in the house then Mum leaves while you are gone . It worked perfectly with a grandson who lives abroad and didn't really know us at all he was older but he was fine for the rest of the day.