Perils of Fatherhood

Becoming a father is scary. Fears of being usurped by the baby for mom's attention, and envy of the magic bubble that mother and baby make are common. Often dad's are anxious about baby not liking them, or not being soothed by them. Dads often experience newborns as intruders and invaders into their adult partnership, setting up competitiveness and boundary negations.
Dads worry about not being able to control their toddlers, of being angry like their own fathers and repeating the mistakes of previous generations.

Becoming a dad means altering your self-identity and dealing with a multitude of emotions such as pride, envy, and a longing to have mom all to himself. Missing sexual intimacy, and a longing to keep their authority and prevent the chaos that children introduce into the marital world are all challenging and impossible to ignore.

In this video I talk about these challenges for Ian, who dreamed of being a parent, but then dreaded and feared it because he realized his kids were getting what he didn't. Learn how he worked with me in therapy to be a good dad.
copyright, Jeanette Raymond, Ph.D. 2022