Hiya,
I'm 9 months pregnant and looking for some advice.
This baby is very much wanted by me and my DP. It will be the first for both of us and I'm confident my DP will be a brilliant, kind, loving dad. However, he's mentioned a few times that he's a bit nervous. He's never held a new born before and he's admitted that he'll be 'following my lead' when it comes to parenting.
The truth is I think he's actually going to be more of a 'natural' parent than I am! He's a very caring and patient person. He also does at least 50% of the cooking and cleaning. (I'm very lucky!!)
However, he's VERY self critical and I'm worried that if things don't go perfectly (which of course they won't because there is no such thing as 'perfect' with a baby!) that he'll take it to heart, blame himself and struggle to bond.
We've talked quite openly about this. I've told him that I feel the same way about being nervous and all FT parents feel like that. Ive also reasured him that I think he'll be a really good dad, that no one will be judging him (least of all me and the baby!). I've said we probably will make mistakes and have difficult times but we will learn together as we go along.
Unfortunately he didn't have a very good role model as a father and I think this is really effecting his confidence. Also, we have friends with a new baby who are on the verge of splitting up mainly due to the changes having a baby have made to their relationship. I really don't think this will happen to us but I still want to do everything I can to stop this.
so... once the baby is here is there anything I can do to boost his confidence and enjoy being a dad? Any tips to help him bond with the baby?
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Helping DP/DH adjust to being a dad.
12 replies
Bellyrub1980 · 30/10/2014 11:14
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