When we think about our little ones starting school or playschool for the first time, we usually worry about their emotions and how they might feel about being separated. But what does it feel like when the child is fine but the parent bears the brunt of the separation anxiety?
Tamara Ecclestone recently revealed that, after her daughter Sophia started nursery, she experienced parental separation anxiety and found it very difficult to cope with.
The heiress told Happiful magazine: “I’ve had more anxiety since I became a mum, and it’s something I need to work on and deal with. I was never an anxious person before I had Sophia, but now I have serious anxiety about anything happening to my daughter.”
After three-year-old Sophia started nursery in January, Tamara found herself suffering unbearable anxiety after being separated from the little girl.
“I sat outside in the car for three hours, crying my eyes out, and Jay (her husband) was telling me that I was a lunatic,” she said. “I was watching my phone, thinking, 'The nursery staff are going to need me to come back'.
“But they didn’t. I feel like I’m always worried. Is she going to fall over? Have I forgotten something? Is her smock clean for school? Everyone has a certain level of anxiety. Nobody’s life is perfect."
Tamara added: “I’ve just got to get my head around the fact that I’m not going to be there to pick her up every time she falls over, and that’s the brutal reality.”
However, she said the thought of Sophia experiencing any kind of “bullying” or pain when she is not around is “heartbreaking”.
Tamara says she never wants to push Sophia into anything, and only sent her to nursery when the tot showed signs she was ready.
Reflecting on Sophia’s first day at nursery, the young mum said: “I was part happy and proud and part sad.”
Tamara also revealed she allows Sophia to sleep in her bed and hasn’t spent a night without the little girl in two-and-a-half years.
“She slept next to my bed when she was first born, then she got a fever after injections so she slept with me that night,” she explained.
“And here we are, two years later. She’s never had a cot. I set her to bed at six and barricade the bed with pillows so she stays safe, and I make sure the doors are open – then I go watch TV, dinner and then have an early night myself."
