3 year old disrespectful to father

TaraMacho

My 3 year old son doesn't treat his father (my DH) very well.  I don't understand why.  DH will be leaving for work and ask for a hug and my son says "no, I won't miss daddy" which I know must be hurtful.  Other times DH will try to play with him and he will whine and run away.  Are these behaviors that would earn a time out?  How do I change it.  My son plays with his dad and gets along fine some of the time.  I'm at a loss. I feel so bad for my DH when he's like this. 

Bigboobsmcgee

My almost 4 year old does this to my H sometimes too. DON'T take it personally. He's just a kid and doesn't really mean what he says. Most likely he will outgrow this but right now I don't feel like that behavior is at all disrespectful and warrants a time out. Kids are honest. He's allowed to say he doesn't want to hug his dad when he leaves without being reprimanded for it. Maybe you could correct him when dad asks for a hug and ask him to say "no thanks" instead of "I won't miss you".

But again, try not to read too much into this behavior.

nschuetz01

Omg, I'm so glad we aren't the only ones. My 3 yr old son is the same way. He is such a mommy's boy, always has been. He won't give dad hugs/kisses goodbye sometimes, says I don't like you/I hate you to him frequently (this crushes me), won't let him help him with anything and doesn't even want to do fun things with him most of the time. I've heard this is a stage but he needs to grow out of this soon or my husband is going to lose all hope!

CynthiaMcC

My sister's kid is SOOOOOOOOOOO mean to me sometimes. I wouldn't worry about it too much. I think that when they can't speak, they express anger/frustration/discomfort/etc just by crying. Once words enter the mix, sometimes they mean what they say, other times they're just attaching words associated with negativity to whatever they're doing. Kids just express "I'm pissed" by saying mean things to people they love, even if what they're "pissed" about, is actually just their belly hurting or something. At least that's my theory.