I have two twentysomething daughters who’re currently taking over the planet. When these female charges popped out of their mommy’s womb, this thing called “responsibility for their upbringing” hit me like a Jackie Chan punch.
I didn’t slough off my role in their lives onto my wife, my church, public school, day care, relatives, TV, or “the village.” I didn’t expect any of the aforementioned to fill my boots chiefly because … they can’t.
Living in Miami, I knew I would have to pony up and become a major player in my little ones’ lives if I wanted them to escape being part of the local teen chum slick. In other words, I was going to have to be a dad in the traditional sense of the word.
Here’s a little FYI for slack-jawed sperm donor baby daddies out there: A lack of mental, physical, and spiritual input from you, dad, will exponentially boost the odds that your youngster will grow up to be more lost than an AK-47 under Holder’s oversight.But you probably don’t give a crap because you’re the type who wears sunglasses indoors. It’s always sunny in Doucheville, eh?
Now, the man-hating feminists would love for us all to believe that a dad’s role in his daughter’s life really isn’t that important and that a father can be easily replaced by extra mothers, or public school, or some government program; however, the facts speak to the contrary.
For instance, when a little girl has a loving dad in her life who is a provider, protector, hunter, and hero, research shows that said lucky lady is going to turn into one amazing woman. Yep, when a great pappy is in the house, these are the kinds of reports you hear:
· Toddlers securely attached to fathers are better at solving problems.
· Six-month-olds scored higher on tests of mental development when their dads were involved in their lives.
· With dads in the home, kids managed school stress better.
· Girls whose dads provide warmth and control achieve higher academic success.
· Girls who are close to their fathers exhibit less anxiety and withdrawn behaviors.
The good news doesn’t stop there. As little darlings mature and plow into puberty and beyond with dads who’re worth their salt at their sides, these young women show these not-too-shabby traits:
· The likelihood that daughters engage in premarital sex, drug use, and alcohol plummets when their dads are involved in their lives.
· Girls with doting fathers are more assertive.
· Daughters who feel that their dads care about them and feel connected with their dads have significantly fewer suicide attempts and fewer instances of body dissatisfaction, depression, low self-esteem, substance abuse, and unhealthy weight.
· Girls involved with dad are twice as likely to stay in school.
· A girl’s self esteem is best predicted by her dad’s loving affection.
· Girls with fathers involved in their lives have higher quantitative and verbal skills and higher intellectual functioning.
· Girls whose parents divorce or separate before they turn 21 tend to have shorter life spans by four years.
· Girls with decent dads are less likely to flaunt themselves to seek male attention.
· Fathers help daughters to be more competent, more achievement oriented, and more successful.
· Girls with involved fathers wait longer to initiate sex and have lower rates of teen pregnancy. Teen girls who live with both parents are three times less likely to lose their virginity before their sixteenth birthday.
· 76 percent of teen girls said their fathers influenced their decisions on whether they should become sexually active.
· 97 percent of girls who said they could talk to their parents had lower teen pregnancy rates.
· A daughter from a middle-class family has a fivefold lower risk of out-of-wedlock pregnancy if her father lives at home.
· Girls who live with their mothers only have significantly less ability to control their impulses, delay gratification, and have a weaker sense of right and wrong.
· Kids do better academically when their fathers establish rules and exhibit affection.
(The above bullet points were taken from Meg Meeker’s book, Your Kids at Risk: How Teen Sex Threatens Our Sons and Daughters .)
Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there who are living their lives in the grand masculine sense of the word. No matter what the man-hating, nerve-grating feminists yammer, you are irreplaceable in the grand family scheme of things. Therefore, stay your traditional course and watch life pay you back in spades. Salute!