The importance of father/daughter relationships

[Major Nikon]

2. I'm not a perfect father either

I've always told my kids this. I think it's important for kids to understand this because often kids grow up with the expectation that their parents are perfect because they rarely admit when they are wrong. So I tell my kids that I'm going to make mistakes with them, but the important part is that I always have their best interests in mind and I try to be the best father I can. My daughter is wrestling with this concept just as my son did when he was her age. Teenagers develop an independent streak an want to challenge their parents on lots of things. So I tell my daughter that I may be wrong, but I'm still the parent and I still have the responsibility for the decision. I don't take this to the extreme and say that my word is law and can never be questioned, however I do tell my kids that their mother and I have the last word in how long the debate lasts. My father (who was a Unitarian pastor) had a saying about this. He said when your kids are small, you wish they would never leave, but god has a plan for this. He turns them into teenagers and then you can't wait to get rid of them.

The "Mad Men" fathers were largely the product of the industrial age. When the US transition from an agrarian society to an industrial based economy, the father went off to work at the office or the factory while the mother was delegated (sometimes nearly exclusively) to child rearing. The institution of fatherhood suffered greatly and the results speak for themselves. I feel that as men we have the obligation to foster better positive fatherly traits among ourselves, but this doesn't happen nearly enough. This is one area in which women are head and shoulders above us.