Daddy preference
My daughter has a daddy preference. I’m flattered. Really. But I wish Mallory would knock it off already.
It’s come and gone over Mallory’s one year of life. It mostly seems to manifest itself around bedtime, but in the past it’s been easier for me to calm and comfort her when she hurts herself.
Irene and I are transitioning from her being full time on baby to me, as Irene looks her return to work straight in the face.
Part of the exchange is that Irene’s going to handle the put-baby-to-bed ritual, routine, siege, whatever you want to call it.
And Mallory’s pissed. Or so it seems.
Irene’s been trying to get Mallory to sleep for the last half hour. For her part, Mallory is screaming, pushing and kicking at her mom as if she was some giant leghold trap with hair.
At a certain point, Irene called me to come take over. I got there, took Mallory into my arms and the crying stopped.
This is a painful thing for both parents to experience, though much more so for Irene, who was beside herself with grief and frustration.
Until Mallory turned around, waved and smiled at her. I gave Mallory back to Irene, and the little prankster seemed fine.
As I type there’s only the sound of our “go-to-sleep” sound track coming from the living room. And I’m thinking the baby’s on track for another night’s sleep.
Go figure.
January 10th, 2007 at 11:24 am
It was quite funny when Mallory waved. I was feeling rejected, looking at Mallory suddenly calm in her daddy’s arms, but when she waved at me, I had to laugh. I interpreted the wave as “ok, mommy, you can go now, thanks for everything today”. Chris thinks it was more like “hi mommy, I love you”.
For the record, Mallory has gone back and forth somewhat in her preferences. Chris and I have had our own ways of comforting Mallory. I took the daddy-favouring more personally at its peak some three or four months ago, partly because I blamed it on the much-resented pumping. Both the daddy clinging and the pumping routine eased up for a spell. Hopefully we will all settle into a comfortable routine after I return to work (the paid kind).