Disheartened

How involved are the daddies here in your LO’s day to day? Please describe. Post our first child i see the side of my husband that I do not like more apparently. He still sleeps till post noon everyday day including weekends. Otherwise on the phone or on the couch watching TV. No he does not do shift work - he is self-employed and his time is flexible. His thought is since we have a helper we can be hands off totally and involved only when needed. I totally disagree - we hired a helper as we need help with chores and LO since nobody can help us when we are working. But when we are not working we should be involved as much as possible. He also likes to do irritating stuff like feed our food to LO at dinner time knowing it will disrupt her eating her food during meals - by disrupt I mean LO will refuse to eat her food after etc. Even after telling him a million times not to do so he will still ask me can LO eat this or that (referring to our food). He also likes to react with big actions and sounds which freaks LO out. Kept telling him a million times not to do so as LO refused to go near him for fear of the reactions. He thinks it’s funny and just playing. I don’t know which part of it is not clear to him when he witness the effects himself of LO rejecting him till now at 18mths old!. So far only me and my helper are looking after my LO and for my husband his help is very minimal and more apparent only during my helper’s off days when he has to make milk, fill the bath water. I manage our helper, my LO’s needs at every stage I.e her toys, books, formula milk, clothes, diapers, vaccination, PD appts, parenting forums and tips etc. I feel very distant from him post the birth of our first child and kept thinking I married the wrong person and I don’t need him around if he’s not contributing. I can’t help this feeling. Appreciate any advise from mummies or daddies.

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My husband is hands on but, like to insist on his daily me time of exercising. Since we have a helper we are more free but instead of being with our boy or me more, he will rather take time to play pc game or exercise. I'm wondering maybe men are just like that, their brains just aren't wired to be nurturing no matter how hands on they are. Cos things like toys, books, baby items / nutrition, he will be a step slower (maybe even a few steps slower) than me.

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