Bonding with Baby

Families are all about bonding and mother and daughter have definitely bonded. But is there such a thing as too much bonding?

Spending so much time together is great for them, but it makes life hard when I come home and want some time with my daughter. She just can't stand to be without Mum, and after a few minutes starts looking around more and more frantically.

After the weekend, when I've had the chance to spend lots of time with her, things are fine again with us and she no longer looks for Mum. It worries me that they can be too close, there must be a line where they have a happy medium, but because we have no family over here and because I work during the day, there's no one else either of them can spend much time with.

It leads to jealousy on both sides, my wife says she doesn't like being in different rooms from her daughter for more than a few minutes, andwhile she claims it's ok that I can play with my daughter, she hates even the thought of anyone else touching her.

It works both ways, my wife said she was holding our daughter a few days ago when they caught sight of their reflection in the mirror, My wife carried her closer so my daughter could see herself better. Closer. Closer. Then our lovely, peaceful daughter pounced! She hit the mirror a couple of times in a rage (luckily there were no sharp objects around). How dare another baby take her place with Mum!

So now we have another rule added to our list, this one to keep baby facing away from the mirror. This is not something we can explain to her, no matter how patient we are. It's just a matter of time before she works out the truth, that she is the most loved baby ever and that no one is going to take her place. I think she knows this is the truth with Mum, as a London Dad, I just have to work out the best way to convince my daughter that Dad really wants to bond too.