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Behaviour/development

Is anyone else's three-year-old son anti-Dad?

2 replies

EBAB · 12/08/2007 00:43

Just wondering, because ours is at the moment, and has been for several months.

It could be caused by a host of things - most probably that dp has been through a bit of a low spell this year and has therefore been less focused on ds and parenting.

Ds says he doesn't want Daddy anymore, wants him to go away, that he's a rubbish dad, and Dad can't change ds's nappy, bath him, drive if I'm in the car and can drive, settle him to sleep (has never been able to do that) without ds becoming hysterical for Mum to do it; we're talking proper distress tears.

We expected the more-attached-to-Mum-at-this-age thing - just not such hostility to dp, which we're both finding pretty miserable. Dp feels like - and sometimes is - giving up on ds. And so the cycle continues ...

It's not all the time, over every interaction between the two of them, btw, but usually several times a day, over something.

Any thoughts?

Big thank you.

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Desiderata · 12/08/2007 00:46

Well I can't help from experience, but my dh has four children from his first marriage and I do remember him telling me that at the age of three, all his kids (male and female) went through an anti-dad stage.

At seven, they all went through an anti-mum stage, and were all over dad like a rash.

The open hostility you describe does seem a little extreme, however. Could dh do more bonding stuff?

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littleboo · 13/08/2007 15:45

my 2.8 is very anti dad most of the time, so much so that it has really begun to upset my dh.
its mummy mummy all the time, which is also hard for me.
Can't remember my other 2 being like it as much.

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