Differences in parenting between mom's and dads

It's very common for males and females to play with their children in different ways. Often times, the styles of play are extremely different.

Yesterday I was in the kitchen and I was listening to the bantering of feet running, the snickers and laughs of my children, and the louder, bigger feet coming down the hall. (those were of my husband). I wanted to intervene and say "guys, let's not run and make so much noise" but I stopped myself. I knew that my husband and my kids were having fun. No one was getting hurt and the kids don't get as much time with him as they do with me because of Tom's work schedule.

Even when we had our first baby there were times when I wanted to say "no, you're doing that wrong, do it this way" but I knew that just because he did things different from me didn't mean that his ways were wrong.

I think that it's important to let dads be involved with baby and older kids. Even though they do things differently and sometimes we have a hard time not intervening, try as hard as you can to let him do it the way he wants. If it doesn't work correctly, he'll either ask you how to do it, or he'll try another approach.

In my house, my husband definitely does more "roughhousing" than I do. I will intervene if they are getting too rough and if someone is going to get hurt.

In the big picture, it is important that both mom and dad agree on what style of discipline you're going to use when your children misbehave, but when it comes to the small stuff, such as bathing, changing diapers, playing, etc. different styles are fine. I actually think it's beneficial to the child to experience different styles. I know that my kids enjoy both styles of play that my husband and I provide to them.