Daughters and Boyfriends

Greetings all, sorry about the delay, life has been extra busy this week.  This week’s rant is aimed to be a little more lighthearted than the others so far.  With that being said, if you don’t have kids, or don’t care about funny parenting issues, tune in next week.  I am trying to take a break from being mad this week.  Enjoy!

What does every father fear most, as it relates to his daughter?  I believe that every father fears another male influence that will be more important to his little girl than he is.  I think about that, and yes, it does scare me.  This issue has already begun around our house and I am not thrilled it is here so soon.  I swore that it would take longer to emerge, but alas, I was wrong.  My 5 year old got off the bus one afternoon, screaming about her new boyfriend.  Ugh, I start thinking.  Here we go with this thing, and up next, she’s married.  In some ways it is exciting because she is growing up and becoming a real person.  She is moving away from the “child” portion of life, and moving forward into the issues and crap that we all deal with called “real life.”  While this is fun to see, it is also completely terrifying.

Over the week following her first “boyfriend,” she has already been broken up with once and started looking for another.  My wife tells her not to worry about looking for boyfriends right now, and while this is good advice, I find it completely impossible for her to do.  The thing is that now she has had a boyfriend, and boyfriends are natural for little girls.  She no idea of what a boyfriend actually means, but is still interested in the idea of relationships.  I can only hope that her only real blue print for relationships, her mom and I, are showing her a good way to be.  Not the only way to be, but still a good way.  It really feels like some sort of torture to consider her growing up so fast and it really bums me out that I have no ability to do a thing about it.

My experiences as a dad went from diapers, to walking, to boyfriends, to married in approximately 8 minutes.  It feels like I literally blinked and she is all grown up.  To be fair, she is only 5, but it still feels like too much and too fast.  I cannot stop it and I cannot control it.  All I can do is enjoy this little moment in time, and take what I can get.  Next thing I know, probably tomorrow afternoon, she will be all grown up and gone.  Either way, if you care for this story, awesome, and if you don’t, just ignore it.  This is just another installment of, not only a lunatic, but a lunatic dad ranting away.