How do I explain to my boyfriend that simply existing isn’t spending quality time with me?
Hi all, I’m 27 F and my boyfriend is 28 M and we have a 6 month old daughter. He is gone 10 hours a day M-F working while I stay at home with our daughter. Since she was born, I’ve tried to remember that quality time with her father is important and have tried to not let our relationship get on the back burner although it’s hard. From the time he gets home from work until the time we go to bed at night we turn on a show and basically just take turns taking the baby to get tasks done and only talking about things related to our child and things that need to be done. Whenever it’s nearing our daughter’s bedtime I’ll suggest we do things together once she’s asleep such as watch a movie and cuddle, take a shower together, play a board game, just anything that involves us being more than parents basically which most of the time is turned down. He says that us passing the baby back and fourth caring for her and the house is quality time, which I know isn’t true. We don’t have much alone time at all and I told him I missed him and he acted like I had 3 heads when I said that because he’s “right here.” I often get told I’m too clingy for wanting to do more with him than our normal parenting routine. I’ve tried to explain several times that what we’re doing isn’t quality time but I’m not getting through to him. Any suggestions? Thank you.