Traumatic for Daughter

[Joe79]

Hello, I have a question about my daughter.  Her mother left me and took my daughter when she was just 5 weeks old.  She is now 16 months old and I have only seen her once.  Her mother is across the country and was in Puerto Rico, so I can't have weekends or anything of the sort (I am in California).  I want to start taking my daughter to be with me for extended periods of time.  I'm thinking a month or more several times a year.  I wish it was to be with me always but I won't get into that.  My fear up to this point is that she is so young and dependent on her mother and loves her so much that it could be traumatic for her to be flown away for long periods to be with me.  Which brings me to my question, would that type of visitation arrangement be traumatic to her or hurtful at this age?  If so, when would she be old enough to understand that she is going to spend time with Daddy for a while and she will see Mommy soon?

Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.  I need to know my daughter and she needs to know her father, it is just crushing me.

[margypops]

I think she is too young to be taken from her Mom it would be better for you to arrange to go and visit her , It is very traumatising when this happens , children feel they are abandoned , she would cry a lot and if you have a new partener it would be even worse, when she is older it will be possible .This is one of the problems faced when folks with children split up, think about the child and how she would feel.