Anti-daddy

[devesa]

I'm due end of May and my DD is 3 half way through May. She's been pushing limits at home for a while but now she's gone anti-daddy or at least "must have Mummy". Anyone had this problem? Is it related to new baby brother issues??

[kerala]

Lucky its that way round! My 19 month old is the ultimate daddy's girl. If he is around she does not want to know me, pushes me away and shouts no if I come near. Makes me feel marvellous as you can imagine!

Blame him for being such a fun dad when he is around. Plus he is the novelty value as boring old mum is here all day whilst he wafts in just before bed. Still!

[devesa]

O.K so how do you handle it? She wouldn't let him read her a story last night
. (We alternate bath and story each night, I do one he does the other.... ) She went without a story because she refused to let dh do it. The other night we both read her the story thinking it was a one off. But I really don't ant to give in. She's nearly 3. I get cross when she won't even say hello to him. Should I insist or leave it...at this stage I don't want a bad habit forming as they so easily do!

[devesa]

Thanks Motherhur, (couldn't call you Mother!!!)

[FranMay]

We're going through this big time with ds who is 3.9. When both dh and I are around ds insists that I do everything for him. When dh gets home from work ds will often have nothing to do with him. He goes as far as saying 'I only love mummy, not daddy'. He's a bit older than the op's dd and from what I can see it is an attention seeking thing, trying to get my attention on to himself and away from his younger sister who is 16 mo. He has other related behaviour like not wanting to do stuff for himself that he is capable of doing. e.g. 'mummy take my shoes off' and 'mummy get me dressed'! So we're trying to ignore it as far as we can. But on the other hand, he can't always have me doing everything for him and dh doing everything for his sister because it's not fair and not practical. A tough one. I even said to ds tonight, 'well when you grow up to be a bigger boy, you probably won't want mummy much anymore, you'll want your friends instead', and he gazed at me as though I was completely crazy!!

[CatIsSleepy]

devesa my dd (nearly 2)is the same....for quite a while now dd hasn't let dh read her stories at bedtime, and isn't too keen on cuddling him either-at least not when I'm around.
Doesn't seem to be much we can do about it-she shouts and thrashes about if he tries to sit her in his lap for a story. It's a shame!

[LadyG]

My Ds 2 and a half is very much the same-but apparently much better when I'm not around. They do have a 'boys stuff' thing going though with visits to the RAF museum or Science Museum, watching the odd Thunderbirds episode and lots and lots of Lego. Is there special stuff you could persuade her that only she and Daddy could do together?? Lego/swimming anything else she finds fun and you are 'not very good at doing Daddy is much better' I'm due in July so I'm sure that it heralds the onset of sibling rivalry big time.