During Allie’s first 4 years, I have learned that there are 5 things a little girls dad must learn. (And there are some things that I hope our daughter learns from me, too.)
1) Every Dad needs to make sure to learn how to properly fix their daughter’s hair.
“No Daddy… you are not getting out of doing it this time. I know that your hands are bigger than mine and it is hard to work with these tiny rubber bands that go in my hair, but they aren’t going to get in there themselves, Daddy!”
2) Every Dad needs to take a course on color matching.
“Dad… Don’t you know that the latest trend is mixing polka dots with stripes and stripes with checkers?” If they decided to wear that crazy outfit, its ok. I promise your little girls will still “Rock” whatever outfit she is wearing.
You will always get an “A” for effort in their eyes.
We love this one from when Allie was younger.
3) Dads… get ready to break out the glitter and the glam for the next tip.
Every Dad must learn the lesson from Elsa & just “let it go.” I think it is written in the “Daddy Handbook” that we will play princesses with our daughters, so don’t think twice about it when she asks you. Just go for it. Hey- We look good in a tiara, too!
So take a tip from Allie… it will bring out the princess in all of us.
4) Every Dad needs to be a master at learning how to paint their little girl’s nails.
Allie loves when her mom or I paint her nails, but her favorite is to paint mine… she tries to give me tips to do it as well as her, but I just can’t seem to get it. Maybe one day!
This was the first time she painted mine… and trust me that it wasn’t the last. It’s just time that you can spend together. Who cares what you are doing as long as you are together, talking, bonding and having fun.
5) Every Dad needs to dance with their daughters.
I suggest that you pick a song out now, while they are young, and make it your “special song.” Hopefully it will be the song that you will dance to at their wedding one day. Allie and I have a song already- “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri.
Take the time to dance with your little girl… let her stand on your feet, let her take the lead, let her dance the day away…
She will look up to you for everything else, let dancing be your jumping off point.
Now is the time to make the “little” memories with your little girl. Let loose and have fun with them!
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Aww, I love the pictures! Any man who will wear a tiara for his daughter is a great dad!
Its easy to wear a tiara when it will put a smile on her face 100% of the time:)
Hi – I find myself conflicted by these “tips” and similar ones doing the rounds on social media – on the one hand, I’ve often found myself doing them (putting on a crown, e.g.), and my daughter loves it… but then I think, am I doing her a disservice by reinforcing that she’s a princess, attaching so much value to what she looks like etc. Is there a danger that she grows up believing that? – & why do we treat boys so differently? – I’m trying to think of a strong female role model…maybe e.g. Hillary Clinton…I wonder if her father painted her nails and if she pranced around in a princess outfit? Anyway, those are just some thoughts – no-one said this dad-thing was easy, haha! p.s. I never used to be like this until my second daughter was born – I think that caused the shift in my mindset!
James. I say to embrace it and love each special moment with your kids. I grew up with one brother and my first 3 born children were all boys. I agree having a little girl will change you a little, but in the best way possible. I do not think it is a bad thing to tell your daughter she is pretty, I say it all the time and a friend of mine has a great thing she says when out in public with her girls. if someone says “she is such a pretty little girl!” She responds “She is even prettier on the inside.” Remember Positive word reinforcement is always good. Think the opposite if you told them negative things all the time. Keep up the good work!
Yeah – I agree – I don’t think it’s bad for your daughter to know/think/feel that she’s pretty… I suppose my concern is when we (or she) value that as her main quality and that she links her self-worth to only that. So I guess I’m saying that there is a need for balance…for every time she hears how pretty she is, she also needs to hear how smart, or thoughtful, or funny etc. she is – that she knows there are other qualities that are valued and as a result can one day deal with school bullies, or being able to eat a cupcake without having to stick her finger down her throat! (ok, I’ve gone too far!)… Anyway, thanks for the reply – I look forward to reading more of your posts.
James I agree with you about balance. We do something our home called “put-us” and it to help balance any negative comments. For example if one child calls the other a name and hurts his/her feelings and “puts them down, the same child then has to give them 3 “put-ups.” Like: You is kind, You is smart, You is important! (Sorry I am quoting the movie “The HelP”)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H50llsHm3k. Parenting by far is the toughest job to balance. Please keep in touch!
I must respectfully disagree, though it is not a popular viewpoint in our society. Girls need to see their dads as men who are caring, strong, willing to fight for them, encouraging them to be the women in training they are designed to be. They don’t need dads who put on nail polish and tiaras. It can cause confusion in gender distinctions. My dad was an awesome Dad, and I grew up knowing him as a strong, loving man. I have great respect for him because he didn’t deny his manliness in an attempt to entertain me. Femenizing men doesn’t benefit little girls, women or society.
Missy,
As I understand what you are saying, because it is not the 1st type of comment I have received about this. The way I live my life is really simple. I love my wife and my kids! I try and live each day as it were my last and with that respect I try to learn as much from my wife as I can, in case something did happen to her. If you check out my page you will see that there is not any type of “gender confusion” or anything that would be confusing to my 4 kids. I played football through college, I worked 16 hour days in a hot steel mill to help pay my way through college and to buy my wife’s engagement ring, and I coach the majority of my kids sports. Trust me, my kids know I am a strong and loving man. This week for instance my wife has been out of town and my daughter saw a picture of her and started crying. Next to the picture was pink nail polish and she asked me to “Paint my nails like Mommy!” She never said “Paint them like Daddy.” She knows who the female figure in the home is, but knows I will be there to help out and to be her “DAD”. Also we share roles in this house. I do a lot of the cooking and 90% of the laundry (which my mother taught me how to do it). Why? Honestly I like to do it! I also take care of the home, cut the grass, do DIY project with the kids, and work on the cars (even restoration projects). In the same sense, my wife will go out and play baseball with the kids and throw the football with them. I think we can both agree that we want to raise strong, willful, independent, and successful adults? That is the “job” as a parent.
Having been a little girl whose daddy didn’t want her, it’s been interesting trying to raise my two girls who have a daddy that loves them to bits. Every little girl is different, I’m not a princess kinda girl although I like to dress up from time to time. Before my first little one I did not want the “pink”. None of it, and yet I have two girls that seriously loves pink and purple and my life began filling up with girly things. But she wears boots and a twirly dress, she hangs upside down on the jungle gym and my littly is loving hearts and stars. If they have the freedom to be who they want to be, it doesn’t matter whether they are dressing up in dresses and high heels or gumboots and overalls, they will be strong confident women and their daddy cannot play with them as much as he would like but they “cook” with him, and he plays trains with them and he helps to feed the dolls. He is there for them as much as I am and my girls will choose their own path. Feminisation cannot happen unless the man choose it and then power to him. A daddy dressing up with his daughter is not telling her that he needs to be a princess, but rather that he can use his imagination and play with her. She will love him more for that.
I’m totally in love with this post – sharing with my hubby!!
Thanks! I know I have learned even more over the last year from her. Its amazing how different each child is, but in the best ways possible.
Hah, happened to me so many times. I have a 3.5 years old daughter and she always wants me to dance with her. She has her way to convince me all the time, something about that raging scream makes me leave everyting and dance with her. 🙂 I haven’t tried to paint nails with her (did it with her mother). I don’t need to tell her I won’t paint nails with her, she knows it’s something girls do. But we do dance and sing a lot together. Also, every evening when I do cardio at home (yep, busy schedule, no time to go to gym, I do it at home) she does it with me. She loves doing crunches and squats with me. 🙂
While I don’t do girls things (not that I think there’s something wrong about doing it – I just never needed to do it, she has her mother who is stay-at-home, so she can take care of all women stuff), whenever we go to the park, we play a lot together, we chase each other, I feel like a kid and I’m a 27, 1.84m male guy. It may look weird from the outside to see a big guy fooling around with his little daughter but I don’t care – as long as that makes her happy.