What Your Husband Can Teach Your Daughter

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

There is so much research out there about the importance of a father and the special impact he has on his daughter. Girls who have strong, supportive and affection father figures are most likely to avoid having sex in the teenage years, for example.

There is that old saying that a woman marries someone who reminds her of her father. In many cases this is obviously true, but in other cases, the similarity between a father and a husband may be subtle.

There are many different ways of parenting today. Most modern fathers are very involved in their children's lives, including the lives of their daughters. Others still leave most of the child raising to the mother. But wherever your husband stands, you both have to know that his actions and attitude can teach your daughter a lot, and have both positive and negative consequences.

Your husband can teach your daughter to be strong and proud of being a woman, so she can go far in life and be happy with who she is. He can teach her what real men are like, and how they should treat others, especially their wives and families. Those are some of the positive things.

Your husband can teach your daughter about priorities, too. Is it more important in life for her to be pretty, to be smart or to be kind? Should she make her career or her family a bigger priority? Is remembering your spouse's birthday important? What about roles between spouses?

Your husband can teach your daughter a lot about the relationship between men and women. Does he look at other women or make comments about them in front of her? We have a friend, who is otherwise a descent guy, a good family man, loyal and kind. However, his "quirk" as everyone dismisses it to be, is that he can hardly pass a young woman without a comment about her anatomy. This man has three pre-teen and teen daughters, and I wonder if they are learning about objectivity or objectification, about body image and value.

Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, online content manager, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania in the middle of the woods but close enough to Target and Home Depot.

View Full Profile | More from this Blogger