Very Clingy 13-Month Old

This is not at all unusual for a one year old. Maybe you can try to using a baby carrier (backpack kind) in the house. You can cook, clean and vacuum. Babies have a natural instinct to be close to their parents - you can nurture that or try to thwart it. My experience was that when you nurture that instinct the kids grow up to be extremely self confident and independent. I know it sounds like the opposite would happen, but when you show them that they are important to you, and then they will feel important.
My daughter was always clingy. She wanted me to be with her or near by. She could be very brave if I was with her. If she was sick or teething she wanted to be held constantly. This is pretty normal behavior. I recommend these books:
‘The Attachment Parenting Book’ by William Sears M.D.
‘The Successful Child Book’ by William Sears M.D. (askdrsears.com)
‘The Confident Child’ by Terri Apter
My daughter did have a hard time adjusting at the start of kindergarten. (Since I did not send her to preschool this was the first time she was away from me for such a long time.)
However, she is now at the end of first grade and she had a great year. She is confident and resilient. She is a leader among her peers.

One of my best friends has twin girls who are now 17. I remember well how one was Little Miss Independant and the other was always in need of reassurance and attention. They are both very bright, athletic, and sweet girls now, but the one that was clingy then is still a little clingy now.

I have twin 4 yr old girls. When they were that age, both were somewhat clingy and one was very very clingy - I could hardly get anything done when the nanny left. I don't think they were like that with the nanny; it was me they wanted. I tried not to over-react. I did try to give both of them lots of reassurance. I worked full time, but what worked for me was to have a routine and to make the best of whatever time I had. I set aside certain times that the girls could count on and really sat down with them and gave them my undivided attention - even if that was just 15 minutes a day. When it happened while I was trying to fix dinner, I tried to redirect, but I did not scold. I did what we are told not to do, which was to introduce TV as a psuedo-babysitter - just to distract them while I cooked, etc. At night she often liked to sleep with me, and I let her. She wanted to lay her head on my arm (she would say, "I want Mommy's arm.") Today, however, she is usually very self confident - too much sometimes - she is getting in trouble at preschool for beating up little boys that tease her. One thing that helped a great deal was going to mother's day out. I think twins have special problems; they have a sibling that is the same age and it may seem like they have to fight for your attn - everything is a competition in a way because you always have to leave one waiting while you care for the other. But once they started to MDO, they started to expand and learn to relate to other children and other adults and I really think it helped. They had an absolutely wonderful first teacher. I plan to send my twin one year old boys to the same MDO in the fall. Have you joined a multiple mom support group? Talking to other twin moms can be really helpful. check out www.pamom.org if you are near Plano. We still have mommy time now, even with two sets of twins, and occasionally I still let her have "mommy's arm," but she does not need it so much anymore. One thing I have learned to cherish; take a deep breath and know that "this too shall pass."

My son was very clingy up until he was about four years old and started school. I found with him that the answer to the issue was simply socialization. Once he made friends and kind of “struck out on his own” with other children, he stopped being so needy and clingy all the time.

I also think alot of it was boredom for him.

The best way I have found to quell the clingy-ness is simply to redirect him. Put her attention on something else or as my grandmother would always say "find her price" and she will move on to something she finds more interesting.