If your spouse complained about your child not liking them, and you knew the reason why, would you keep that a secret or spill the beans?
This 26-year-old woman pretty much feels like a single mom to her 2-year-old son. Her toddler is in daycare during the week, and she has a full-time job. As for her 32-year-old husband, he only works 25 to 35 hours every week.
When she’s at home, and her toddler isn’t sleeping, she’s glued to his hip, playing with him constantly. She gets no time to herself or breaks until her toddler goes to sleep at night.
“My husband, on the other hand, gets home from work (on days that he works) and typically vanishes upstairs to play video games with his online friends within 20-30 minutes of getting home,” she explained.
“Our son has recently refused to show him any type of affection, other than (in true toddler fashion) demanding food/drinks from him, and will refuse kisses and hugs unless I step in and tell him to give his daddy a hug or a kiss.”
“Meanwhile, our kiddo will happily flop on me and give me more than enough affection. My husband, dismayed at being ignored by said toddler, has expressed that our toddler hates him and that he doesn’t want anything to do with him.”
She has told her husband she has no clue why their toddler dislikes him so much, but she actually knows why this is, and it’s because her husband never, ever spends any time with their toddler.
Her husband might spend 20 or 30 minutes with their toddler, which really means he’s on his phone, ignoring him, and then he goes upstairs so he can decompress.
She just doesn’t understand how her husband can’t see that there is a stark difference between how their toddler treats the present parent and the absent parent.
She’s honestly so exhausted from being her toddler’s sole caregiver and picking up after her husband, whom she calls a manchild, that yes, she is thinking about getting a divorce.
I vote for a divorce. She’s already operating like a single mom, and by getting rid of her husband, at least she won’t have to constantly clean up after him, so her life should get easier!
It’s embarrassing that her husband doesn’t even work full-time and is still opting out of being a dad and sharing child-rearing responsibilities with her.
Her husband acts more like a doomscrolling teenager than a husband or a dad, and that’s just not cool. If she has an interest in giving her husband one chance to fix his behavior, she could tell him after their toddler is asleep why their toddler dislikes him so much, then turn the conversation into how she needs him to step up here.
What advice do you have for her?
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By Bre Avery Zacharski
Hi, I'm Bre, Chip Chick's CEO! I have a degree in Textile/Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, and... More about Bre Avery Zacharski
