The Heart Comes Home

I've read those posts about "25 Things Mother's should tell their Daughters" or "28 Things Father's Should tell there Sons". My mother died when I was 9 years old.  My father raised me and he is my best friend.  So naturally I believe in the relationship between my husband and daughter and what it will be, something he can't comprehend yet, but eventually will come to know.

I decided to write my own set of rules for them.

20 Rules for Fathers of Daughters

1. Love her Mother. She will learn to love by watching you and her mother.  She will watch how you hug her, kiss her and laugh with her.  Those moments will shape what kind of man she finds worthy to be in a marriage with. Love with your whole heart and express that love each and every day.

2. Take her out for ice cream. She will always remember those fun spontaneous moments of being with dad.

3. Teach her how to save money. It will be invaluable as she grows older.

4. Take her to the football game. There is something about sharing a day of hot dogs, sunshine and football with your father.

5. Paint her fingernails on Saturday night. Because she’ll always remember the tenderness of you doing it, long after the polish chips away.

6. Tell her to protect her heart. Especially when it comes to relationships.

7. Show her how to walk into a room alone. Teach her confidence in who she is and what she has to offer, to look people in the eye and always have something interesting to say.

8. Let her dance in the rain. Dance alongside her, without the umbrella. Teach her that there are moments to close your eyes and lose yourself.

9. Share music. Take her to the boy band concert, buy a shirt and scream along with her, she’ll remember it for the rest of her life.

10. Let her win, sometimes. She needs to know that big things are possible after perseverance.

11. Teach her about family. Let her know family is always worth fighting for. Family is always worth standing up for. At the end of the day, she has you to fall back on, and pray to God that you will have her.

12. Don’t be afraid to take risks. Encourage her to follow her dreams and take reasonable risks in furthering her education and experiences to make them come true.

13. Listen to her now. If you don’t listen to the little things now, she won’t share the big things later.

14. Teach her how to shoot a gun. Show her how to protect herself so that she doesn’t grow up in this world frightened and scared.

15. Give her bear hugs. The kind that squeezes her insides and makes her giggle. The kind of hug only a daddy can give.

16. Give her baths. Because Mom can’t do everything damn it.

17. Play tea party with her. She’ll compare every “date” to the first one she ever had - you.

18.Tell her you’re proud of her. She will work hard to hear you say it.  Say it often.

19. Teach her about God. She will learn about the Father’s love by the example you show her. She will learn about God’s forgiveness because of your own.

20. Be her hero. You are anyway. Don’t disappoint her. Prove to her that Daddy’s are the biggest heroes of all. It doesn’t matter if she’s 2 or 32, you’ll hold that title for the rest of your life.