Separation Anxiety

On our well-child checklist at the 9 month visit, I ask parents if their baby is developing separation anxiety.  Does he cry when he's taken from your arms?  Does she get upset when she's in the care of an unfamiliar person?  I tell the parents it's all part of normal development.  The child will outgrow it like every other phase of infancy and babyhood, and someday this kid will be the one who doesn't look back when he checks into his college dorm.  Far from their college years, though, Sophia and Max are already so well-adjusted that they didn't even shed a tear when I said goodbye to them for a weekend away.  Are these the same children who once wailed and cried when their babysitter took them from me?  Sophia and Max were perfectly happy to say, "See you Monday!", while I was the one sitting on the airplane, thinking about how much I was missing them.  Who's got the separation anxiety now?  As children grow up and start making their own way into the world, it just gets harder and harder for a parent to let go.