askwomen

What did your father do for you/not do for you that you needed?

Context: I have recently become a father to a daughter, with a mother whose father was not around when she was growing up. I won't bore you all with the details but our daughter is here now and I am realising that I'm the only one in our little family who has really had a father before. But I have never been a girl. And I know that as a boy, my relationships with my mother and father were massively influential and powerful but at the same time radically different to each other. People say that daughters and fathers have a unique relationship too.

Question: What was your father to you? What matters the most when it comes to a father making his daughter loved, safe, confident and free? To live a good life as an adult?

I'd like this to be a mature, personal and real discussion about daughters and fathers, rather than a political thing, so I humbly ask to please speak from your heart rather than your head on this one :)

Thank you

P.S Apologies if this question is badly written or conceived; I haven't been getting enough sleep! It is what it is! P.P.S I'm gonna post this to a general Ask community but I thought it should come her first :)

Got out of my last relationship for this reason (amongst other things). I was the everything person - cook, accountant, maid, landscaper, scheduler, fun planner, etc. It didn't start that way of course - just little acts of service out of love that became the expectation over time. Are things more equitable in your relationships, or are there any women who are where I was at? I'm still scratching my head wondering if I bear some of the blame for setting myself up that way and trying to get some good perspective for the next one!