I'm flattered that my little girl does not want me to leave the house, but I wish it wasn't so difficult. Lauren is two-and-a-half now, and she has never been great about welcoming babysitters. We've been able to skirt the issue a lot by just making our plans after Lauren goes to bed. She's in bed by 7 p.m., so that's not a huge stretch. However, there are those times when we need to leave Lauren with the babysitter awake, and the tears flow.

I expect this is just a phase and that she will eventually come to a point where she loves having a babysitter over. In the meantime, I try to invent fun, special things for Lauren to do with her babysitter. She usually resists though and doesn't take the bait, preferring to cry instead.

We usually get a report from the sitter that she calmed down relatively quickly. However, I am curious to see what other parents of children this age do to help their little ones not be so upset when mom and dad have to go somewhere. Any advice?