Behavioral Issues

I was sitting on the couch on a Tuesday evening, watching House and tinkering with my fantasy football lineups. The phone rang. Blocked Number. I answer and it's the Kid's pediatrician. Apparently the ex husband/dad, "John," had left her a message earlier in the day wanting to discuss the Kid's behavioral issues.

Excuse me, what?

The Kid still hates being dropped off at daycare. He's been going there for almost a month.The Kid has never been great with change. Prior to this, he had the same nanny for nearly 3 years.  So yeah, the Kid doesn't love daycare yet. He also doesn't love being around 20 other noisy kids when he's used to being 1 of 2 children.

Plus, think about it this way:
In July, John bought a condo and moved out of his parents house. So Kiddo no longer sees his paternal grandparents on a daily basis (when it's dad's week).
In August, Kiddo's nanny gave notice and he  had to go to daycare.
Its now September and hasn't been very long for the Kid to adjust to some pretty big changes.

The pediatrician and I talked for a while and figured that either 1) Kid needs more time to adjust or 2) the current daycare is not a good fit. We also discussed asking Kid his opinion since he is old enough and verbal enough for us to attempt a conversation about this.

John coddles the Kid. Instead of just saying, "The rule is, you have to hold a grown up's hand when you cross the street or are in a parking lot," John somehow made the Kid scared of cars. There was a period where he would just scream and had to be carried. John also has this semi-feminine nickname for the Kid that grates on my ears and though it's dumb and anti-feminist of me, I don't want John somehow making the Kid a "sissy."

To further coddle the Kid, John doesn't really make him  do anything he doesn't want to.
Don't want to go to bed? No problem!
Don't want to pick up your toys? Ok!
Don't want to eat your dinner? Have whatever you want!

So now that John is attempting to parent, the Kid is resisting, because he's 3 and they don't call them threenagers for nothing. The Kid does the same stuff at my house, but he also spends a fair amount of time in Time Out at my house.


All I think John needs to do is read a parenting book, be consistent and calm down. It's probably best for him to hear the same damn thing from our pediatrician since he doesn't listen to me anyway.