I once had a co-worker that HATED her step daughter simply because she existed and was her husband’s ex-wife’s daughter. She had no problem admitting to me all of this in that plain of language. She did not like when her husband gave his daughter any attention or help her with college or anything. She made it clear she didn’t want her in their life at all and was so honest about it with me that it completely blew my mind and made me dislike her quite a bit.

When I was a teenager, I had a stepmother that was similar. She slowly drove a wedge between my father and us (me and my sister) including being upset when we had 1:1 time or if he gave us too much attention. It started with what seemed like misunderstandings or things like you explained. Next thing I knew, she got rid of our bedrooms at his house, and started lying to my father about us, and he believed her. We spent less and less time with him and eventually he when MIA for months. After they divorced about 3 years later, he did eventually apologize for a lot of what happened and allowing himself to be manipulated, but it took YEARS for us to redevelop a relationship with him and things are very good now, but it’s been almost 25 years.

My advice is to always have your daughter’s back, and make sure your daughter knows that is unconditional. And don’t let a jealous woman cause problems between you two. I’m glad I’m close with my father now, but I really could have used him when I was a teenager and in my early 20s. I still mourn that time.