what's going on here?

PipSqueak0313

Ds2 is 20 months and he is fine with most people. However, when my dad arrived at my mom's on Wednesday ds2 looked up at the sound of the door opening and immediately burst into tears at the sight of my dad. The rest of the evening, the whole time we were with my parents on Thursday and Friday, ds2 would act like he was scared of my dad. Today, he would finally allow my dad to sit next to him and play but my dad can't hold him. My dad is the only one he reacts to this way and my dad hasn't done anything to ds2. Not sure what to think or how to address this. Ds2 has been reacting this way with every visit this year.

veggieroll

DS is the same way with my FIL. He's really nice and great with kids, but every time he visits, DS is very slow to warm up to him. And normally DS will crawl into a complete stranger's lap.

CaptainSerious

Does your dad have facial hair, or any other physical characteristic that may seem different or unusual to your son? Sometimes kids have strong reactions to things that we, as adults, don't even register (color of hair, sent/cologne, size of a person's mouth, etc.).

PipSqueak0313

This visit was the first time Dad had facial hair so I don't think that's it. Ds didn't react to my brother and Dad and Brother look very similar (friends and family have mixed them up due to similarity). Starting to wonder if my mom is correct that Dad gives off a more negative energy that ds is picking up on (Mom claims Dad gives off negative energy because of how exhausted she starts feeling after being around him even in the absence of conflict) I know the dog dh had when we married didn't like either Dad or Brother.

Junebug060609

CaptainSerious said:

Does your dad have facial hair, or any other physical characteristic that may seem different or unusual to your son? Sometimes kids have strong reactions to things that we, as adults, don't even register (color of hair, sent/cologne, size of a person's mouth, etc.).

This was my first thought as well. I've seen a lot of kids freak out about facial hair out of the blue.