Redditors Are Sharing What They Wished Their Dads Knew About Raising Girls

Daughters of Reddit flocked the popular subreddit r/AskReddit today after user u/MeisterStenz asked: ““Daughters of Reddit, what is something you wish your father knew about girls when you were growing up?” Of several thousand responses, common themes, jokes, and serious and sad responses overtook the thread. It’s worth checking out.

The thread included a lot of interesting points. Reddit user u/totally_italian addressed menstruation and its difficulties: “That not every instance of anger or sadness on my part was because ‘it must be that time of the month.’ My dad is a great guy all around, but used to bring that up (even jokingly) waaaay too often.”

Some responses spoke less to dads brushing off real feelings with bad jokes and more to how much they needed their dad’s outward approval and affection. User u/dal1718, for instance, said she wished her dad recognized “That it doesn’t make you look weak to show affection once in a while. My dad hardly ever hugged us or said he loved us,” and another user u/turtlecozies said “If you spend a good portion of your daughter’s childhood talking about how much better and easier a son would be to raise, don’t be surprised when your daughter grows up confiding almost exclusively in her mother and never in you.”

Another response from u/allthebacon_and_eggs went hard at a classic and outdated trope of the “overprotective” dad: “Understand that she is probably going to want to date,” it began. “It’s important for teenagers to learn how to date, navigate romantic and sexual encounters, and to build healthy boundaries and relationships with those partners. If no one can ever date your daughter unless they want to see the barrel of a shotgun pointed at them, she is 1.) going to rebel anyway, 2.) will learn you can’t be trusted and won’t talk to you, and 3.) miss the opportunity to develop those skills in her teens while she’s still young and has her parents nearby to help give advice.”

So, the thread, which has 2,403 responses and counting, is worth digging into. These are real people looking at through the lenses of hindsight to arm today’s fathers with more knowledge. Are all their responses going to apply to you? No, but they all offer an interesting perspective that might make you think a bit harder about being a good dad.