I have moved away from my family for work. I could have stayed put and worked in a factory but my wife has sacrificed a lot for me to study over four years to work in the television industry. My wife also wants to work in tv/film. Towards the end of my study an opportunity to adopt a beautiful girl came and we decided to go along with the adoption. Where I used to live had no work opportunities. I would gladly leave my job to be with my daughter but my wife wants me to get her into the industry as well OR ELSE (she reckons). Either way I would have less time with my daughter.

My question is how can I build and maintain a strong father-daughter relationship from a long distance. I am 4 hours drive away and I go home every chance I get (depending on finances). It is bad enough that she may feel rejected from her birth parents let alone her adopted father living away from her (she is two years old).

Am I over-reacting?

-Tom

Pyper has this habit since she is teething to cry around 10pm just as we are getting off to sleep and then cry until we either get her so she will go on for hours, it just drives us both a little crazy when you have had a “hard day” and the last thing you want is to get her up and then go and calm her down and play happy happy joy joy for another hour. I can understand it must be pretty awful for the little lady and that we are just trying to help her, I hope she doesn’t feel that she is doing this alone it’s almost as if we are all having our teeth come through!

We have tried a few different things one being Bonjela, the other being Waleada teething powder which to be honest looks like Cocaine of which we just put on a spoon for her and feed to her! And then there is Naturopharm Teething spray of which we have used before the teething really started and this is suppose to be great! ... read more >>

Well I have a little 9 month old that thinks that scratching my face whilst I hold her is fun, yeah sure is - NOT

I mean your looking your little girl in the eyes and then over comes the hands and wammoo I get this scratching on my face and like Steve Urwin would say “Crikey” that damn hurts.

I pick her up and play with her and I think, she thinks its a game and the out come is to hurt daddy well she wins alright.

SO what I started doing was running my fingers over her face but not my nails, and now she loves this and thinks its funny and starts laughing OMG I cant win.

Renee says to put her on the ground straight away so that she knows that it hurts and she wont do it. Good luck I would say!!!

Any thoughts how I might stop this???

Cheers scott

Question from Hanli:

My husband is wonderful and very invovled in my daughter's activities all around, however lately he has started telling her how sexy she is and this is of concern to me as she is only 10 yrs old. I have mentioned to him that he should rather use beautiful or gorgeous however he does not agree with me and says that I am over reacting. Please could you give me some advise on this subject?

Question from Judy:

Do you think it is "natural" for a dad to continue allowing his 12 year old daughter to sleep in his bed with him on a regular basis? I don't suspect any foul play here; it is simply something she has done since she was an infant.

Greetings! Today I’m sharing an interview with Abel Cheng of www.parentwonder.com on fathering from May 24, 2007:

1. Usually children are closer to mom for some reason. For a dad, how does he overcome this and form a closer bond with a child?
It’s important to understand that Dads get close to kids in their own way. It all depends on how we define “closeness.” Dads form a bond with their kids by doing things with them and sharing experiences. Mothers often are the ones that kids will go to when they have a problem or when they want to share their day, but Dads can be involved in that too. All they need to do is to listen well, not judge too much, and to share some of their life with their kids too.

2. How do we not lose our temper when our kids misbehave? ... read more >>

I have been a dad before. Mid 90's to be exact. I have not seen my daughter since 2000. I would like to be a dad again. I am now in my mid-40's though, and finding a woman who is younger than 35, who wants to have kids AND wants to hook up with someone my age is proving a nightmare. Most women under 40 don't want anyone over 35. I feel very left out in the cold. I am finding it hard to even find a solo mum who wants a partner and someone to be a dad to her kid(s). I remember a while back you couldn't fight them off ... now it seems they don't want another man in their life - they are quite happy thank you very much just being the single mother raising their kid(s) - without any male influence. If you have any thoughts and ideas I'd be interested in hearing them.

-Sam

My 3 year old son bites me when he can't do something. What can I do to stop this? thanks mates

-Scott

Hi Guys

Has anyone got any ideas on how to stop our 17 week old from turning 180 deg in his cot? My wife is VERY paranoid (as you can imagine)and is going to rush out and buy a "safety sleep". It was his first night in his "big boy bed" last night and seemed to have had a party! Hopefully one of you guys will have an idea and be able to save me a little bit of money.

-Tony

This is a comment about stay at home dads posted by Larry:

A stay at home dad is living off his wife's income, right? So I don't believe it's fair for a single man without kids to pay taxes, especially if the single man gets laid off from his job and earns a low income for the year. The cost of living is very high in Madison, WI and the single man should keep the money he earns. I will contact a senator and congressman about this.