A small step that feels huge

So I've had a bit of a strained relationship with my 15-month-old daughter. I'm self-employed, which means I work long hours and work from home. As such, while my wife was on her year's parental leave, I was always there too.The problem is, because I was always working, my wife reckoned that our daughter felt ignored by me when she brought her to visit or when I took 10 minutes out to come downstairs and see her. Worse still, I have in-laws who feel the need to "compete" for her affections and a mother-in-law who gleefully criticises every parenting decision I make, with the end result being that my daughter would run to anyone else first before me. It was a bit depressing. Still is.So about two weeks ago, my daughter started day care. I made it a point to take her there myself in the car and it's the highlight of my day so far. Just that trip has helped repair the bond a bit (for example, we "sing" together), but something happened today that almost made me melt.When I went to pick her up, I had to enter her group room for a change (normally she'd be brought out by a carer to avoid disturbing "group harmony" - that's Germany for you). She saw me come through the door, her face lit up and she started tugging at the other kids to get their attention, pointing at me and yelling "Dada! Dada! Dada!" as if she wanted to introduce me to all her new friends.That was the moment in a very shitty month that made it all worth it.Just felt like sharing. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2ooF20B