My 3.5 yo daughter has recently begun getting upset about her Daddy doing things for/with her rather than me. It started with her bath... a few weeks ago she started crying & wanting "only Mama, not Daddy" to give her the bath, which is something DH has done for her 98% of the time since it became part of her bedtime routine about four months ago.
It's spread to other things too... she refuses to go to him for comfort and if he tries to help her back into bed at night (though she has always rejected him at night... however, he does put her to bed all by himself with no trouble when I am gone one night a week) she sobs and yells, "I don't need you, I only need Mama!"
It seems like this is probably a pretty normal thing.. I've always been her primary caregiver as I SAH and DH works, but it is distressing to me because I know it must make DH feel pretty badly and also we are expecting a baby any day now, so the timing couldn't be worse for this... it's stressing me out and I just hope she will understand that for a while after the birth I'm not going to be able to do some stuff with/for her.
We've talked about how Daddy helps her with some stuff and Mama with other stuff, and that sometimes Mama needs to do other things so Daddy will help her... but during these conversations she remains pretty adamant that she doesn't want Daddy, only Mama. Still, she's gotten over the bathtime thing really more or less, still a protest here or there, and other than after she's been in bed so maybe I'm posting about this a little late, I don't know. I guess I'm just mostly worried about how things will go when the baby arrives, and about it negatively affecting her relationship with DH... any thoughts or advice?
It's spread to other things too... she refuses to go to him for comfort and if he tries to help her back into bed at night (though she has always rejected him at night... however, he does put her to bed all by himself with no trouble when I am gone one night a week) she sobs and yells, "I don't need you, I only need Mama!"
It seems like this is probably a pretty normal thing.. I've always been her primary caregiver as I SAH and DH works, but it is distressing to me because I know it must make DH feel pretty badly and also we are expecting a baby any day now, so the timing couldn't be worse for this... it's stressing me out and I just hope she will understand that for a while after the birth I'm not going to be able to do some stuff with/for her.
We've talked about how Daddy helps her with some stuff and Mama with other stuff, and that sometimes Mama needs to do other things so Daddy will help her... but during these conversations she remains pretty adamant that she doesn't want Daddy, only Mama. Still, she's gotten over the bathtime thing really more or less, still a protest here or there, and other than after she's been in bed so maybe I'm posting about this a little late, I don't know. I guess I'm just mostly worried about how things will go when the baby arrives, and about it negatively affecting her relationship with DH... any thoughts or advice?
