Attachments

By Amy W.

Right now, my 6-month-old daughter is totally attached to my husband. He is the one that gets the kids up in the mornings, breakfast fed, clothes on, and out the door to daycare. Oh, and he has to suffer through endless episodes of the Wiggles and the occasional spilled juice by my oldest daughter.

So by the time I pick the kids up in the afternoons, my youngest is tired from not really napping all day (6-month-olds should really sleep longer than two 20-minute catnaps during the day) and normally takes a nap when we get home. She wakes up, we eat dinner, and then soon after it is time to put on pajamas and go to bed. I feel like my bonding time is pretty much nonexistent. When we are at home in the evenings, I hold her as much as possible, not putting her down for anything, not even making dinner. I am absolutely spoiling her, but I miss her. I want her to be attached to me, not my husband.

But the same thing happened with my oldest daughter. As a baby, she loved her Daddy and of course said “Dada” first (but only because most babies say that first). She was Daddy’s little girl, but now is totally attached to me and I secretly love it. As annoying as hearing “hey Mommy” about 200 times a day is, I can’t help but smile. She tells her Daddy, “I’m Mommy’s girl” and them smiles coyly at him, all the while eating up the attention I give her. She may look just like him, but she is all mine right now. My husband and I take turns reading books to her each night before bedtime. If she had her choice, Mommy would do this every night. What do I do differently than my husband? I have no idea, but I am going to keep it up.

Amy W. is a "Work It" contributing writer. Read more about her.