Q:

My daughter bites her nails - me too and my husbands says its my fault....?

My 4 year old daughter recently started biting her nails. Not seriously short or bleeding but I never have to cut it. I've been a nail biter since I can remember but now my husband says she is biting because I bite mine. I have a 11 year old son as well and he doesn't bite his nails....I was just wondering - is this really my fault? You know...monkey see, monkey do? 

A:

I think you and your husband should be careful with blaming each other. Kids will always do something you don't expect and it doesn't  help your relationship if you start blaming each other.
A few things you have to consider now:

Do you really mind if your daughter bites her nails? You've grown up with nail biting so is it really a problem?
Try to find out why your daughter is biting her nails. My son does it because he is bored. My daughter does it out of stress. For both of them I'm trying different tactics to get them to stop nail biting (that said it's a work in progress so I have no magic bullet).
It might help to talk to your daughter and see if you can stop together. Then you both try to remind the other if she forgets. That way you turn it into a game instead of being "bad" and "fault".

