Oedip-hell

[minitoot]

Anyone else got a toddler who refuses to have anything done for him by his (perfectly nice) daddy? Just had a major tantrum scene because he wanted me to bathe him and put his pjs on instead of daddy (I was cooking). It's driving me up the wall. He wants everything done by me. I mean, even I can see that his father is by far the nicer parent, but this seems to make no difference to him... he's 2 and a half. does this end??

I remember this phase (and it was a phase) well. It kind of just slowly faded, with DD letting daddy do more and more, and then her wanting only him (except for last thing at night, to sing to her, and I don't blame her either). Then it evened out, and she is more equal about things now, without an obvious favourite.

Ride it out, let DP do the cooking and look forward to a break in the near future when its all NOooooooo, I want DADDDDDDDDY to get me dressed! Who will probably be at work, or unavailable for at least a few hours, thus scuppering all your plans to leave the house.

Ha :D Glad it's not just me. It's exhausting!

I remember this stage from about 20 months. I was massively pregnant with DD2 and found it really stressful. We used to say that Mummy had to go to the shops at bathtime as then she'd let DH bath her and I'd get to relax with a cup of tea for 15 mins

We went through this too when dd was just 2. Seemed to last forever but it can only have been a couple of months. Like singsong, I was also very pregnant at the time. The phase had to end when ds arrived as he and I were in hospital for over a week and he was a very dependent baby so daddy had to be acceptable! A year on, both children are fairly even in their affections with a slight mummy bias, but then I've just been on maternity leave with them. When dd expresses a preference now, I'm convinced it's just another way for her to try to control the situation.