Help! Son Seems to HATE His Daddy!

My almost 5 year old son does the same thing. If daddy isn't doing something fun with him, he wants nothing to do with him. My son has been trying to get my husband to sleep on the couch. I think they all go through it. When my son tells his dad to go away or to sleep on the couch, I treat it like I would if he was being mean to anyone else. I tell him that we don't talk like that to other people. I even give him less attention afterward to show him that he's not getting anything from me being mean to his dad. I didn't have half of these issues while I was still working. I think some of it is that he spends all day with me, and daddy is taking the attention away. As long as he's fine with daddy when you're not around, I wouldn't worry.

Think back to high school psychology, this is classic and normal developmental behavior for this age. The whole oedupus (sp?) complex. Boys want to marry mommy and are very jealous of daddies, and girls do the same thing. So, understand it is normal, but of course lay down the rules about saying hate about people, saying nice things etc. This too shall pass!

I am totally with Cheryl on this one. You (you lucky, lucky woman) are the love of that little boy's life. And daddy is the one he is warring with for your time and attention. He is jealous and wants you to himself. It is totally normal and really rather sweet when you get past the mouthy part of it.

Make special time with him that is for him alone so that he gets some one on one, and correct him when he tells daddy to leave. Then sit back and smile because when is the last time you had two men fighting over you? :)

My son isn't real thrilled with daddy either. Does your husband get on him a lot? Mine does. He's constantly saying "Big boys don't do that" "stop crying" stuff like that. I FINALLY got through to my husband last Friday and got him to realize that what he's doing isn't working, and that we need to take away ALL negativity when it comes to Brayden's behavior. Well, that is unless he needs disciplined. Anyway, on Saturday, we did a girl's day/boy's day and my son was NOT happy about being left alone with Daddy, but when we all got home after our day together, he'd had a really fun time with Daddy. So, things are looking up. I'd start paying attention though as to what kind of attention he's getting from your husband the majority of the time. My husband is the type who will come home and start nagging at the kids about toys being in our bedroom, blankets being messed up on our bed, and other stuff, and kids pick up on that stuff so quickly that I think they almost immediately begin to lose the excitement of daddy because they don't get as much pleasure out of their time together with him.