So my wife has been sick for the last few days and I took some time away from work to be with my son. We had a blast heading out on his bike to the post office, several different parks and spending some time watching an excavator clean out part of a street they are rebuilding near home. At the end of the day I was on the receiving end of some unsolicited hugs which was really cool.
But by the end of the second day – which saw his grandfather come over and help out – I was informed with a Papa No! that I was persona non grata. This carried over to yesterday.
This morning the first thing he said as he walked out into the hall was Papa No!
What to do?
I decided to not say good morning to Alex and let him do his thing. He and my wife headed to the living room while I chilled out in the kitchen reading. At some point he came over and offered me a candy, which was nice, and at the moment I’m still staying out of the way. I’m not sure if it is something that happened over the last few days (although he says that he is not mad at me) and I have a feeling that he was missing his mother and perhaps getting a bit jealous. Hopefully giving him some more space and time with his mother will smooth this over…
Update: Just this moment he ran over to the office to show me something they are doing in the living room, so it looks like this is working out and perhaps the right way to handle this (this time!)
Update II: I was just allowed to carry him around and tour the laundry room. The laundry machine – which he has filled himself and turned on before and watched it wash – scares him today.
Update III: Alright, this ended pretty well. He spent some time with me while his mom rested and this went okay. We played and I gave him space to do his thing, but I did have to use an intermediary for much of the time (a Pocoyo puppet). Happily, after Mom woke up and we all went shopping, Alex and I took off to the park and had our usual good times at the park. I was on the receiving end of some spontaneous hugs and we boogied to some music that was playing in the park. We’ll see how the sitch is tomorrow, but after a day and a half of him closing his bedroom door on me and starting the day with Papa, no! it was very nice to get back to normal.
I’m certain that giving him his space with his mother and us not talking together too much while together with him allowed him to feel that Mama was his and only his again, and this allowed me to get back in the picture. Quite an experience! Take care when balancing the father/son relationship in between the mother/son relationship.
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