The importance of father/daughter relationships [View all]

I see a lot of conversations about the need for fathers to develop proper relationships with their sons in order to prevent violence against women and other associated anti-social behavior. However, I don't see many people discussing the effect of father and daughter relationships and the impact this has on young women. I am fortunate enough to have both a son and a daughter. My son is grown and now lives outside the home and my daughter is mostly grown. A very good friend and neighbor is a psychologist and we've had quite a few conversations regarding parenting and young people in general. According to her, young women who have poor or non-existent relationships with their fathers tend to seek out the wrong type of men and engage in riskier behavior in regards to their relationships with other men. The reasoning is that the first male-female relationship that most women have is with their father and what they learn from that has a significant effect on them as a young adult. Girls tend to develop things like confidence, respect, assertiveness, and self-worth to a greater degree from their fathers than their mothers. They also learn a lot from watching how their fathers interact with their mothers.

I am lucky in that both of my kids are turning into great adults. I like to think that good parenting techniques have a lot to do with that. I haven't seen much here in the way of conversation regarding the male perspective on parenting. As far as I'm concerned, the greatest job any man can have is being a father. I hope this thread spurns more conversation here on that subject.