My partner and I both work full time. Generally, one of us gets a full day of solo parenting a week and one day where it's both of us off work with our 20 month old DS.
I always look forward to our days together as a 3 but honestly find myself feeling very low and lost when they come around.
When it's me and DS we don't do much in the house other than eat meals together and he has his naps. The rest of the day we're out. I also have a pretty hands off approach to parenting where I try and let DS explore and only intervene when he is upset or in possible danger.
My partner is the complete opposite - always fussing or worrying. Today for example, I let DS play with a little packet of gravy while we were doing the food shop but partner just took it away straight away. DS takes 5 minutes of sitting up and wriggling to get down for his nap which I'll let him do while partner will go up multiple times to settle him.
I've tried to tell my partner to see if trying my way will work (as I know it does) but he thinks I'm too laid back.
We have a nice time together when DS is in bed but I'm so surprised at how hard I find parenting alongside him.
Has anyone else experienced this? I worry we're not setting a good example to our DS of what a happy relationship looks like.