We have a 3 year old cautious and sensitive boy. My husband and I often have different opinions on parenting and sometimes it led to arguments. For some reason, my husband tends to listen to third parties more than me so I'm hoping experienced parents here could give us some suggestions.
My primary goal is to raise a happy child so I try to meet the boy's needs as long as it's not a discipline issue. I always think a child especially a sensitive one will be easy to become unhappy if he/she is often disposed to unhappy situations. My husband thinks child should be trained with some tough situations and should always listen to parents even if the parents are wrong. I figured it may be clear to list few cases that we disagreed with. By the way, I'm not seeking for answers of who is right or wrong, but suggestions of how to deal with similar types of situations more reasonably and properly.
One morning we were in a hurry to go to work. At the door the boy held a reusable piggy sticker from Melissa and Doug Sticker Pad and wanted to take it with him. My husband didn't let him because he thought it would be lost. The boy started to cry. But I thought it was not a big deal and let the boy go with it. My husband was very unhappy - he said I should support him to be consistent as he already said no.
My husband always teased the boy stating that the boy should be trained to get used to similar situations that may happen to him in the future. Being teased continuously, the boy said no first, then raised voice, and then yelled. I was very frustrated about it as I think the boy will get used to yell and be mad.
When the boy started to walk at early age, my husband didn't like the idea of protecting the boy from the sharp furniture edge/corners as he thought it's over protecting and wanted the boy to learn to avoid them. Although we did protect the edges/corners, I was totally speechless when hearing his reason.
Since the boy is 3 year old now, he understands a lot but still says no to us a lot of times. Many evenings it is a struggle to take the boy to brush teeth and have a bath. When the boy didn't want to do what we expected, I usually distracted him with other interesting talks and he would do it. But my husband simply grabbed him to the washroom and fighted to get things done. Of course the boy cried, screamed, and struggled. Last night the boy cried for few seconds while asleep "daddy, no. daddy no". I can't say 100% sure it's because of the struggle while having bath, but I'm afraid that it's related.
My husband is a game lover and I understand some people need gaming to relax. The only thing I don't agree is to teach/show such a young boy gaming. It's easy for kids to get addicted to it and I think it's important to help the young kids to develop good life habits while they are young.
Although we have a lot of disagreement on parenting, we both want to be good for the boy. Your valuable suggestions will be much appreciated.