I seem to have a one and a half stone toddler-shaped growth permanently attached to my right leg these days. Everywhere I go, he must go. This is, of course, apart from when my older son is home and then the growth magically manifests itself into a ‘me-and-my-shadow’ double act (although one of whom, it should be noted, is not quite as willing to partake in this act as the other). Once a contented little baby, my toddler now struggles being on his own for any period of time.

However, this seems to be one in a long list of differing behaviours that he has and will continue to go through. I have noticed recently, that these behaviours seem to follow a, sort of, haphazard A-Z of varying performances, sometimes acted out in one day and sometimes witnessed over a period of a few weeks. We’ve had ‘Argumentative’, ‘Boisterous’, a few other letters that also cropped up, not in alphabetical order, until we’ve returned back to ‘C’.

‘C’ now stands, unequivocally, for ‘Clingy’.

Currently, any activity that requires me to leave the room that my toddler is in, such as doing the washing, cooking dinner or other, more unmentionable, affairs, has resulted in a mini episode of Gwyneth Paltrow-style over-acting on the part of my toddler. I know that he is still very young, hence why I do have some sympathy and patience, but it can be very draining when this little person demands all of you for 12 hours a day.

But it is a phase; a phase that he will grow out of as long as I ensure that he feels loved and secure. It is a fine line, however, between trying to make sure he understands that even if I go somewhere without him, it doesn’t mean that I’m not coming back and unwittingly encouraging behaviours that stifle his independence just to stem any toddler fallout. Like much of parenting, it is a balancing act and sometimes it seems like the scales are tipped unfavourably in the wrong direction.

I can imagine, however, that by this time next week, all of this will be a distant memory and my toddler would have moved on through the alphabet to who knows what.

I’m bracing myself already.