My husband has a good relationship with his daughter (she's 12 and shes with us half the time). He's not a Disneyland Dad but we do fun stuff together and he always makes sure he gets time with her one on one. He's the parent who takes care of all her dentist appointments and the doctor and signs her up for activities and makes sure she sees her friends every weekend. Her mom doesn't do any of that. The one thing she does do is she shows up for every school function. She always puts herself first. But his stepdaughter likes her more. She loves her Dad but she prefers her mom no matter what.

Is this normal? My husband says it's not a competition and he knows his daughter loves him he doesn't have to be her favorite. But I can't for the life of me figure out why she likes her mom more when her mom never puts her first and barely takes care of her. Also she's emotionally volatile. She went through cancer treatment last year so maybe that's part of it that would be understandable. But its always been like this. Do daughters always like there mins more? I'm just wondering if other people deal with this and maybe its an age thing?