My daughter told me in front of her mom that she prefers staying at my place and I'm not sure how I should have handled it
My daughter is 7 and stays with me on the weekends. I'd like to have a 50/50 thing going on, but since I live in a neighboring town (different school district) and because of my work schedule, it makes more sense that she stay with her mom during the weekdays. My ex doesn't work and can get her on and off the bus each day. I can't really do that because I'm at work before she gets on the bus in the morning and still there when she gets off the bus in the afternoon.
This past weekend, because of Memorial Day, I got to keep my daughter for some extra time, but thought it'd be nice to take her and her mom out to eat when we made the trade-off (my ex and I both think it's important for our daughter to see us getting along). When we were walking out of the restaurant and my daughter knew it was time for her to go home with mom, she hugged me and said, right in front of her, "I don't want you to go, I want to stay with you forever".
Honestly, it made me both happy and sad at the same time. Happy because she enjoys spending time with me as much as I do with her - sad because I can't see her every day like I could when her mother and I were together. Beyond that, I just felt really awkward because I didn't know the best way to respond to it with her mother standing right there, hearing everything.
Her mom is a good mom - very loving, attentive, and takes good care of her during the week. I know my daughter loves her mom and misses her when she's not around, but she understandably didn't feel that way when my daughter said that. I really didn't know the best way to respond to it. I talked to her privately right after and essentially told her that she's allowed to feel the way she feels, that I love spending time with her too, but that she shouldn't say things like that in front of her mom because it hurts her feelings. I told her she can FaceTime me on her mom's phone any time she wants, which her mom has generally been good about in the past.
I just feel bad about the whole thing and don't know if I handled it correctly. I know it upset her mom because she called me after I left and told me how upsetting it was to her. I would have been heartbroken if I was in her shoes at that moment. She seemed upset with me because I didn't react in the way she thought I should. I don't know what she expected me to do. I told her about how I spoke to our daughter privately about it, but beyond that, what could I have done?
Any dads have something like this happen before? Did I handle it correctly? I just feel kind of weird and guilty about it. It's been a whole day and I'm still dwelling on it.