How do I cope when my ex's partner bonds with my daughter?

CocoJitVin92

Any recommendations on how to handle the gut‑punch feeling when your daughter does something with her mother’s boyfriend? For instance, he offers teachers lessons on driving a manual. I suspect it’s insecurity, but it hits like a gut punch.

Zeropine

Sounds more like jealousy than anything to me.

TerryTheTank

I don't know if that's insecurity like, you expected ro hoped you'd get to do certain things with your kid, and now someone else is doing them. I think the same kind of thing can happen when you're co‑parenting, like teaching your child to ride a bike while the other parent is at work... If you have a good working relationship with your ex, you could bring up the stuff that's important for you to teach your daughter. Hopefully she'll be willing to keep that in mind and at least check in with you first.

PandaSpenser

Handle it this way. There will always be people in her life who teach her things you could have taught her. What matters is the lesson, not the teacher. As a parent, your role isn’t to teach her everything she knows. Your role is to tecah her what you believe she needs to know. Driving a stick shift isn’t essential for her development as a well‑rounded individual. I learned many things from men who weren’t my father, and I never thought less of my father because of that.