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I don't know what to do. I have a beautiful daughter just turned 2 and a loving wife and mostly everything is great but my wife is starting to feel like my daughter doesn't love her. My wife stays home to bring her up and works so hard doing it. You can tell from spending any time with my daughter that she's doing an amazing job of it. But the problem is when I'm around, given the choice my daughter, more often than not, picks me with instead of my wife. For example if we're both sitting on the sofa and my wife asks her to come and sit for a story she will come and sit on my knee and not hers. Or if my wife picks her up she will sometimes reach out for me instead.
It's not all the time but the problem is that when it happens its pretty blatant and I can see why she would be upset about it. I can't remember a time when shes snubbed me to go and sit with mummy.
Of course I've tried the obvious things like she wants to spend time with me because she doesn't see me as much but that doesnt seem to be making her feel any better about it.
Whats causing me as much trouble as seeing her feel that way is it makes me feel bad when I'm having a good time with my daughter.
I really don't know what I can say. It's really upsetting her.
It's a tricky one, and I'm afraid I don't have an answer, except maybe to move out of the way a little sometimes when all three of you are present so your daughter is closer to her mother. As an observation, it seems to me that there is generally a stronger bond between fathers and daughters, and equally between mothers and sons.
My boys always want their Mum and ever rarely want me. It drives me nuts but I agree with actd in that I think that’s the way it goes with boys and girls.
Today's blog brought this post back to mind - worth a read:
Hi daddydave
Your wife mustn't take this personally, children can be very fickle and it could just be a phase she's going through, being a little clingly to you, especially as she sees you less. What your wife shouldn't do is show your daughter that she minds. Children have very sensitive antennae and can pick up the slightest hint of tension as to how the adults around them are feeling.
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