Llama Llama Red Pajama

"I first read this a long time ago and I didn’t necessarily think of it as an anxiety book but after looking at anxiety books since You’re Safe With Me came out, I realised it was about the ‘Mum hasn’t come home’ worry. The phenomenon of parents working or doing shift work or one parent having to go away or to travel for work is so common. Especially if the mum is working, this book is a great way to talk to the child about this type of anxiety. In this book the mum is late for bedtime and the child is left anxiously waiting. There is a YouTube reading of this book by the author. When his mum leaves the room he gets more and more anxious and then really upset. Especially in India, we don’t put children in separate rooms until they’re much older. Obviously, some of it is to do with space and some of it’s to do with lack of privacy as a cultural thing. But here, you do leave young children in a room by themselves. That can be overwhelming for some children. In this story, he starts with a small whimper and then he goes to a total tantrum. Then, he has to learn to deal with it. It’s a book which lots of parents relate to because they have dealt with how they’re going to manage bedtime with their child."