How do you other parents deal with clingyness?

[Taler]

My 16 month old DD is quite clingy with me. To get things into perspective she does play happily on her own sometimes, she doesn't always demand me being right there with her, but when DH is around she more recently will choose me.

The past week it seems to have magnified but she has had a sickness bug and I know that when our LOs are poorly they generally just want mummy.

All I wish to know is how you other mums deal with this and encourage your LOs to be less clingy with mummy and more happy with daddy.

Thanks in advance

I tend to just go with it. They soon outgrow or and they outgrow it faster if you just let them cling when they need to.

Yes I agree you have to just go with most of the time. However when I'm in the kitchen and trying to cook dinner I have to just let DD follow me about screaming. Picking her up while cooking is a no no so she just has to wait I'm afraid.
These phases have come and gone several times for me, just depends on how she feels that week!!!

I literally carried dc3 for about 2 years. Once she turned 3 she became the most sociable, confident, non clingy child I knew. I'm sure this was in part because she had spent two years so firmly attached. However, I dont work. Obviously this approach wouldn't be so practical if you have to leave them with childcare.

My DD2 was very clingy as a baby and toddler. She cried, banging and kicking the door when I left her at nursery, but as I waited outside a window, she quietened down pretty quickly. I didn't work but I thought the clinginess had to stop. Frankly, my patience had come to an end. In fact I didn't enjoy her as a baby or toddler. We changed nursery and a miracle happened! She loved it! She was 3 by then and the change was amazing. Her elder sister was at school. She seemed to want to be like her sister. The new nursery had a "uniform" sweatshirt and this made her feel that she was at school. This was the first time we had separated successfully!

She was never interested in being with her Dad and wasn't that keen on her grandma. I was the centre of her universe and it was wearing in the extreme. It stopped me going back to work. I found that leaving her, as a baby, with anyone was impossible. She just screamed and cried until she was exhausted. She also refused to eat. That wasn't sorted until she was 20 months old! I can honestly say I thoroughly hated my lack of ability to deal with this. I had to steel myself in the end and get some time for myself, even if she cried when I left. She gave every babysitter a hard time so going out had virtually stopped. She's fine now!

I agree, just let them cling when they want to.
My dd is 11 and always been a daddys girl but recently hitting puberty all she wants is me, understandably.
I think they have spells as well of wanting a particular parent more than the other.

Mine was like this; I just used to leave her with daddy anyway and he would do special things with her that she loved like bath time. She would cry for a bit then get over it.

She is now 2.4 and my hard work has backfired!! She is very firmly in a daddy phase and she will only hold his hand, cuddle him, let him help with her shoes and do her hair! She told me to 'back away mummy' today! I will only do for nightmares, teething and illness

It's a totally normal phase but as long as she's used to spending time with her daddy she will be idolising him before you know it

Ps I'm not suggesting that you just leave them for hours on end, but 10 minutes with daddy while you have a cuppa or a bath or whatever while they do something she loves will help her to trust that he can look after her too