how to get a dad to understand what is dangerous

Canada
January 31, 2007 6:39pm CST
my daughter goes to her dad's house every second weekend. i've discussed with him what is dangerous for kids but appearently i left out some common sence things thinking he'd know better. one day my daughter was there, he called and said "you should see what's she's doing it's so cute". then he tells me that she wathed him spray air freshiner around the house so he said she grabbed the can and is spraying it around. i couldn't beleive it that he was calling to say how cute this was. the first thing i said was take the can from her and read it. and asked him to read out loud. he read. "poison, keep out of reach of children, could explode". i couldn't beleive it. this is not the first thing he's done like this. i told him to go take a parenting course but he doesn't think he needs it. she was 18 months when this happend. he had also admitted to me he holds her under the ceiling fan where she can reach when it's on just to make me mad. why put his daughter at risk just to make me mad. i don't get what that's going to prove.
2 responses
• United States
1 Feb 07
I question if these things are really happening or is he just trying to get under your skin, and possibly trying to get attention from you. As for getting through to someone and trying to make them realize that what they are or are not doing is dangerous, especially when they think there is nothing wrong can be very difficult to impossible. If you feel that she could possibly be in danger then you definitely need to intervene. Parenting classes sounds like a great start, or maybe call Child Protective Services and see what other options you have in your area.
1 person likes this
• United States
1 Feb 07
He may be telling you these things, just to get a reaction from you. He might think that this is fun. But if he is really doing these things, then he might not stop until your daughter gets hurt.
• Canada
1 Feb 07
no he's not just doing to get me going. it's true, i've seen him do these things with my own eyes. not the arisol can thing but putting her under the ceiling fan he does every time he's here. and i've seen him do lots of other things that could hurt her. he just doens't seem to think ahead about what could happen.