Being a parent is a great joy and with that comes great responsibility to ensure that our upbringing is not lacking and helps our children blossom into good individuals. It’s a very tough balance to maintain between over involving, being overprotective and over indulging to being actively involved, protecting and providing.
Father is the first interface to the male world for a daughter. Having a healthy relationship with your daughter will help mould her into a confident, strong woman, who can make the right choices in life, especially men. Here are a few things you could do to nourish the wonderful relationship with your daughter:
1)    Be progressive in your thinking and the way you deal with your daughter. You cannot always treat her as a child. Make your daughter feel respected and treat her according to her age. She is not always going to be your little princess. Let her grow and feel like the woman she can and wants to be.
2)    Be open in your conversations with your daughter.  Don’t just hear, try to understand and listen to what she has to say. Don’t use harsh words; rationalize with her when you disagree with her choices or actions. Harsh words tend to make a lasting impression on a child and may harm her self-confidence.
3)    Guide her and help her make sensible decisions, but also give her independence. Don’t try to impose your opinions.
4)    Set a good example for your daughter. Treat your daughter’s mother well, whether you are together or not. You cannot show double standards in your treatment of her mother or other women in your life. Your daughter should know that you respect women.
5)    Don’t hesitate from showing affection and expressing your love for your daughter. Knowing that she is loved will give her a sense of security and help her build healthy relationships.
6)    Play an active role and encourage your daughter in all her endeavors. Resist the temptation to over involve.
7)    Discipline her when the need arises and be reasonable when setting boundaries. You can’t control what she is exposed to outside your home, but you can teach her how to handle the outside world.
Values do not change with time; we should always hold onto them and pass them onto the next generation succeeding us. But, the way the values are passed on changes with time and people. Make it a relationship that your daughter can cherish for the rest of her life.

By

Mary-Ann Roche

This entry was posted on Friday, May 14th, 2010 at 10:43 pm and is filed under Parenting, Relationships. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.