Living Arrows | Daddy and Iris

'You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth' Khalil Gibran.  

So these posts are supposed to reflect childhood and as always I want to be an honest blogger so the gushing post about fathers day that I wanted to write is actually a post about the "I don't want you Daddy" phase that Iris is currently going through. 

Looking at the picture above you would never guess that come bedtime this smiling little girl wants nothing to do with her daddy. It begins as soon as bath time ends. She wants mummy and only mummy to get her out the bath, get her dressed and put her to bed. She tells daddy that 'she doesn't want him' and that she 'only loves mummy'.  In Iris's mind it's a simple as saying "I don't like blue ice cream, I only like pink". She doesn't yet understand how her words effect her daddy, though we do our best to explain to her that it makes daddy sad and that daddy loves her very much. 

It's so upsetting for daddy and it's so tiring for me. It's draining being the only one who can do bedtimes, the only one who can get her dressed and the only one that can make her snacks. I so desperately wish we could share the jobs but she becomes so distressed and I can't let her 'cry it out' as that's not something i'm comfortable with. Instead we've tried to make sure she has plenty of time alone with her daddy. Plenty of time to bond, for him to do the ordinary jobs and also go on fun trips to the ice cream parlour and the cake shop. It gives me a break, it brings them closer and this week it's enabled daddy to do two bedtimes! Let's hope this phase is coming to an end and that we don't take a step backwards when he returns to work this week!

Thanks for Reading 

Created by Donna over at What The Redhead Said, this weekly link up invites you to share a post that celebrates childhood. Click the badge below for more information.