I have done this back to school thing for several years now and each one of my children has gone through the clinging, crying, “won’t let me leave the building without having a fit” phase.

As I gear up for my soon to be kindergartner to put me through a few weeks of this torture, I thought I would share my tips for getting through this difficult phase as easily as possible.

1) A week or two before the first day of school, begin talking to your little one about starting a new class. My experience has been talking about it beforehand helps a lot with expectations. Do not do the “rip off like a band aid” approach of keeping them in the dark until that day, unless you want a serious meltdown.

2) Buy this book and read it often to your little—The Kissing Hand. Use it to start your own drop-off routine. Ours is kissing both hands and three hugs. This is much better then clinging to my leg and not letting me leave until a teacher physically removes my child from my body.

3) Also, tell your little what you are going to do while they are at school. Make it seem really boring. Mommy has a meeting today. I am going to the grocery store and have work to do at home. Then I am cleaning the bathrooms. Leave out the part about going to lunch with friends and catching up on Real Housewives of whatever.

4) Do not linger in the classroom. Really, the faster you can drop-off, the better. If you see the “deer in headlights” look start to form in your child’s eyes, run out the door. Plus, if you stay too long, the teacher will start to give you sideways glaces to get out.

5) Unfortunately, your results may vary. One week may be fine and, just when you think you are over this phase, it comes back ten fold the next week. Each of my kids respond to my tactics in different ways, so expect nothing to go as planned.

One teacher told me that my child cries and goes on and on about how much they miss me because that is what they think I want to hear. And really, once I leave, she is happy, well behaved and without any issues. So I try not to make a big deal out of all of this and know that this phase, like all of the other terrible phases our children put us through, will pass too. Someday they won’t want to spend ANY time with me, so we have to take what we can get.

Good luck to you. And just head straight to Starbucks after drop off! You deserve it!

I know that several of you are experienced with this fun phase too! If you have any tips or tricks to share, please comment below.