Dr. Richard Hogan

I'm not your father.

And I would be setting that out.

I don't want to be your father.

You have that role and your father's a great dad.

I would be promoting the other person's partner because this is where it all goes wrong too.

Let's just say I'm talking about my girlfriend's ex-partner and going, what a gobshite he is.

He's so useless.

He never turns up in time.

That is corrosive for that child and they're not going to value me.

And another little key tip here, right?

And this dynamic to get it right.

What often happens is like, you know, we're so eager to make this family work, which I totally get.

And you want it to all be happy families.

Right.

The first thing you've got to watch is your expectations of that dynamic.

There's so much social competition going on there for each other's attention and there's all that complexity of the dynamic.

But the most important thing I'd say to parents is don't lose the routine you once had with your child.

You know, because I'd often hear kids saying to me, we don't get our nails done anymore and we all have we all have to do everything together now.

And they're becoming annoyed about that.

And like, don't lose that one.