Myth: Staying home with your child is more likely to result in a child with separation or stranger anxiety.

Fact: There is no evidence that a child with a stay-at-home parent is more clingy or more prone to anxieties than a child who has been in alternate care situations.

Myth: Children with stranger anxiety may have been abused.

Fact: Highly unlikely. Stranger anxiety is a very natural part of a child's development and merely a testament to the bonding process he or she has created with close family and friends.

Myth: Overly protective mothers will cause separation anxieties in children.

Fact: Separation anxiety has little to do with the mother and much to do with the child's temperament. Some children are merely more socially inclined than others.