My 4 yrs son has just told me that he doesn't like me reading bedtime stories to him and only want his daddy to read stories. I work term time and have been enjoying the summer holidays with him. The days are busy but fun. Today has been a good day - diving, swimming and an arty afternoon, but he was tired and went to bed a little later than usual. We are currently a host family for foreign language students and currently have 2 Chinese girls staying with us. In the chaos of sorting dinner for them, husband returning from work to leave again for an evening meeting and tidying the dishes etc, bedtime got hectic and I was also pretty tired by then. Usually bedtime is a long established routine of two stories and then a cuddle by which time my son has usually fallen asleep, only tonight he started crying that he wanted Daddy to read the story. I was perhaps too quick to respond that Daddy was out as so his only second choice was me so tough - only he then said very clearly that he "only sometimes" likes me to read stories with him and "always" wants Daddy and that he didn't want a cuddle either. I was very taken aback by this and amazed at how much that stung (and is still stinging) so much so that I searched Google for advice and found you.... I'm aware at how petty this sounds but it was very out of character and when he had fallen asleep, which he did very quickly, I stood by his bedroom door for ages just looking at him and feeling a failure. There are times that I'm sure I raise my voice at him too much but I have the awful feeling that my inadequate parenting chickens are already coming home to roost.... I'm hoping (please) that I'll get lots of replies teling me that this is normal boundary-pushing behaviour and he is looking for a reaction and I should stay calm and rational and ignore it but if I'm heading for a fall, any advice would be very gratefully received.... this is my first posting on anything like mumsnet... thank you!