32 month old son is rejecting my wife

[AngusDad]

HELP: my 32 month old son has now started to choose me over his mother whenever we are together at the weekend. Mum is becoming very upset by this and son is being painfully rejecting to her. Wife spends all week trying to arrange it so weekends are our (all 3 of us) family time but his preference is for me. She works part-time and is with him 2.5 days during the week. He is fine with her during the week when I'm at work.

Can you help?

it will pass, and is totally normal.
my DD went through a phase of it, then she went through a phase of not wanting DH!
just don't make a big deal of it.

he isn't rejecting her - he feels secure enough in her love for him that he can ignore her and concentrate on you, maybe cos you are around a bit less often and so more of a novelty? don't take it personally (either of you) and don't let him play one of you off against the other. pay your wife lots of attention in front of him so he can see how important you think she is,and otherwise chill

It happened here too. I fully expect it to happen with DS2 as well. Don't make it into a big deal.

This exact same thing happened to me but earlier - when my ds1 was 20 months. It was so painful when my ds started actively choosing my dh over me and actively rejecting me. For ages.

Ignore it. I hope your wife can just hug him and kiss him as much as ever.

My ds is now nearly 6 and whilst he still adores his dad, who is a Father Christmas kind of dad, he makes it plain he loves me too.

It is horrible but try not to take it personally. Weird thing to say but true.

Same here, dd is 35 months. I went to get her up this morning and was greeted with a hand in the face "AWAY, MOVE AWAY, AWAY, MOVE AWAY" Charming. It will pass.

Totally normal!

She is so secure with your wife she can take her or leave her. You are an altogether more precious commodity.

She mustn't take it personally. It is a backhanded compliment. x

Hi, just wanted to say it's exactly the same here at the moment. I am the one being rejected for dh, and am reassured by the replies! Glad to hear it is normal.

This was happening with us, too (DS nearly 3), but I have "won him back" by nrsing him through a nasty fever-cough combo over the last week and a half, and now he rejects others for me. This is not ideal, either, as I don't deal well with clinginess! However, it shows that relationship dynamics change quite rapidly.

does she come accross as needy? could put son off. try reading playful parenting by cohen - it's on amazon. being playful/silly is a great way to go.

Tell her to enjoy this brief interlude, because it won't be long before Mummy's flavour of the month again.