Our one year old cries at every new face, and we have no family nearby to practise on

breezy_gecko_850515 May 2026

She's fine with the two of us and the nanny. Anyone else gets a long stare and then tears: the neighbour, the delivery person, a colleague who came by to drop off a laptop. My partner thinks she'll grow out of it. I think part of it is that she just doesn't meet many people. No grandparents in the city, and our weekends are mostly the three of us at home. The options seem to be a playgroup, more outings, or leaving it alone. I don't want to push her into crowds to fix something that might fix itself. What did you do?

4 comments

ochre_tiffin_221315 May 2026
No family nearby for us either, with both of ours. With our younger one, the stage you describe lasted roughly from ten months to fifteen. What seemed to help was the same few faces, often, rather than many new ones. The vegetable vendor who came by every morning became her first friend outside the house. A playgroup might be too much at once.
- pebble_veranda_878515 May 2026
  Same few faces, often: that matches what we see in the youngest classes at school. The children who settle fastest usually aren't the ones who've met the most people. They're the ones who've had a few steady adults.
ochre_window_693515 May 2026
Crying at strangers around that age is very common, I've said that to a lot of parents over the years. My granddaughter screamed at me for two months, and I'm her grandmother! She's 6 now and won't stop talking to me 😄 If she's happy with you and the nanny, she's attached to the right people. The rest comes.
- breezy_kite_678215 May 2026
  Screaming at the grandmother seems to be universal. Ours did it to my mother on every visit for most of a year. Now he's the one asking when she's coming 🙂
ivory_fern_647616 May 2026
Our daughter was the same, and her grandparents were over several days a week, so I don't think it's only about practice. She cried at the postman till she was nearly two. Now at 14 she chats with every auto driver in the city 🙂 I'd leave it alone and keep the outings small.
willow_fern_28218 May 2026
Late to this, but one small thing that worked with our younger one: we started going to one small park every evening around six, nothing more. After a few weeks the same three or four mothers and their kids were 'her people', and the crying at new faces faded around then. Could just have been the age. I'll never know which.