The other night my wife was away, my son had already gone to sleep, and I was up watching Kardashians (as I usually do when he’s asleep and she’s away). After about an hour of her being gone, my son woke up screaming bloody murder!
I went into his room to see what was the matter and he kept screaming. I tried every trick I knew how to do to calm him down. I even thought it would be a great idea to climb into his crib with him so that he wasn’t alone in there. He has been sleeping in our bed a lot lately due to a hard vacation transition and I thought, “Maybe if I get in bed with him, in his territory, he will see that it’s okay and stay there.” That worked for about five minutes. Then he was over it and screaming for his mother.
Mom wasn’t around. Maybe he’s hungry, so I heated up a bottle and tried that. We sat on the couch while he fed himself and enjoy the peace and quiet for another ten minutes. Then the screaming began again. What was wrong? Should I change him? Tried it, there was nothing. Is he too hot in his jammies? I took them off and held him in his favorite blanket and that didn’t work. Nothing I was doing worked.
Suddenly we both heard the sound of the front door opening and cried because we both knew that mom was home. She would fix everything. And that is just what she did. She walked into the room where I was pacing like a patient in a psych ward going crazy and he was just excited to see his mom. She held him tight and he was out cold in minutes. What was wrong with me? What did mom have that I didn’t?
I know that breast feeding brings mother and child closer together and so clearly that is something that I can’t participate in to try to calm him down, but there has to be something. I feel like maybe I am raising a momma’s boy, and is that such a bad thing? I will tell you now, it’s not!
Growing up I was definitely a mommas boy. I went to my mom for everything because I knew that she would make everything better. I know that my son will probably do the same thing, but I want him to know that he can also feel comfortable coming to me when bad things or scary things happen. Mom is totally super woman, but you have to understand how hard it is for dad’s to try everything they can to help their child and the only thing that they want is mom.
I feel like this may be the cause of why lots of fathers tend to just work and provide for the family and then when a situation comes up with the kids he lets mom handle it. I want to try to be there and try to get my kids through these situations where I can help get them to sleep when they are having a hard night. Give my a break and let her have a night out with the girls.
So if you are raising a momma’s boy I say, good for you, but don’t stop trying because one day they’ll have a breakdown and mom won’t be there and you will be the one to handle the situation. It’s exciting and exhausting all at the same time, but at the end of the day it’s so worth it.
