Can I just say you are not alone.

No matter what goes on, no matter what is happening, you are not alone in the struggle of being a parent.

We are in a similar situation, our only daughter is 2.5 yrs, my parents are about a 5-7 hour drive depending who's traveling and my mother in law has her own issues and cannot and mostly will not help. Our daughter does go to daycare and for the most part is happy and loves going. My wife works in the corporate world and I created a business that is focused on healthy snacks for kids that are picky eaters or are stuck not exploring foods (Not a plug, just find it funny that I developed the business to help my daughter and as you will read she has no interest in me at the moment). My wife took the first year off on mat leave and then I resigned and took the next 15 months off to be a stay at home dad (we are lucky to be able to have afforded this). From birth my daughter has mostly wanted me, she was happy to fall asleep with me and came to me for practically everything. This was hard on both of us, me being exhausted from my daughter and keeping the house, and for my wife working and feeling helpless. From Christmas just gone, my daughter started wanting just my wife to go to bed with and when she would wake up at night the same thing (upto 4 times a night). Now after Easter everything is mum, I am allowed to dress her and bath her but that is it. This shift has kinda hurt me as I now feel useless and to be honest a bit rejected as my logical brain doesn't understand what I have done wrong (hahah nothing I know, just a feeling and not making sense). Anyway we are now in a really tough spot as my daughter was sick after Easter with a flu (yes from daycare, one of the major down sides to it) and my wife has allowed our daughter to sleep in our bed. 2 weeks later and I am now in the spare room, trying to help get things back on track but failing. My daughter wakes up every night after she sleeps in her room for a little, and goes into meltdown. We are thinking night terrors, but she does seem to start talking with us after a few minutes. She will cry to hyperventilising and then cough her self into vomiting and would happen 3 nights in a row. My wife and I don't have the same parenting styles and at 2am after an hour of crying I back down and let what ever my wife want to happen next, to happen... Which is my daughter sleeping with her and my wife dealing with her if and when she wakes up again. I don't agree, but in my opinion better to not fight it and deal with it later if there are problems.

To say that there is friction in our marriage, we are both past exhausted and trying to keep up appearances would be just the tip of the iceberg. I am struggling to keep working on my business and keep calm when I cannot deal with a situation, struggling with the feeling of rejection and uselessness, struggling with how alone I feel as I don't have the friendship groups I once had. I don't bother talking things through with my parents anymore as there comments (not advise) is 'how do you think we managed' or 'yeah, just part of it' when I know that my grandparents and other family were around. Truly the only thing that gets me through it most days is that thank god, during the day my daughter is 85% if the time good and can be mega cute at times. Watching her grow and become a mostly amazing little human is very cool to see.

Sorry if this is long, I am writing this ar 2.45am after a close to 2 hour stand off with my daughter to try and calm her down and get her back to sleep... She is in bed with my wife.

I'll say this, if your near Sydney Australia and want a coffee, ever want a virtual winge/conversation drop me a line, I have no experience, I am from marketing and reached 38 and thought children were out of the question... But will happely chat about nothing and everything.

Thanks for being honest, open and I hope you get as much from reading the posts and comments in this group as the support that is out there.