This father took to Facebook to share his – now viral – rules for dating his three daughters.
About a week ago, J. Warren Welch shared his rules for dating his three daughters. Unfortunately for Welch – and fathers everywhere – being the father of a daughter is a difficult task. As a father, Welch thinks hard about a day when boys start dating his three daughters. What father really wants to think about that?
As a man, all fathers recall what it is like to be a young adolescent boy. A boy who may not have the best intentions. A boy who may manipulate a girl and leave her with a broken heart. Naturally, this isn’t something any father wants to think about.
The overprotective gun-wielding stereotypical father is a thing of the past.
As Upworthy reminds us, there once was a time where a stereotypical father was a father wielding a gun at every single boyfriend – or potential boyfriend – of his daughter. It is normal for a father to be overprotective of his children – especially his daughters. After all, the world is significantly more dangerous for females than males. A father just wants to protect his daughters from harm.
This, however, does not mean a father should prevent his daughter from making her own decisions. After all, do you want your daughter to grow up thinking a man should make decisions regarding her body and her love life? Or do you want your daughter to grow up as a strong woman who makes her own choices regarding her life and her body? Today, fathers want strong and independent daughters – ready to take on the world.
Father and poet J. Warren Welch perfectly summed up this line of thinking in a Facebook post – which went viral – containing his simple rules for boys interested in dating his daughters.
In fact, his rules are so simple he only really has one: his daughters make the rules, not him. Captioning his post “I ain’t raisin’ no princesses,” Welch proceeded to elaborate what he meant.
“You’ll have to ask them what their rules are. I’m not raising my little girls to be the kind of women who need their daddy to act like a creepy possessive badass in order for them to be treated with respect. You will respect them, and if you don’t, I promise they won’t need my help putting you back in your place. Good luck pumpkin.”
The post went viral as support from parents around the world began to pour in.
According to Welch, he received an overwhelming amount of positive support from his post with his simple rules for dating his daughters. He believes the positive reactions are a sign the mindset of a stereotypical father shifted from what it once was. Is a new generation of parents finally taking charge? Welch believes so.
“I think [the stereotype of the overly protective dad] really is rooted in a genuine protective instinct that any good father SHOULD feel toward their daughters. But it can also plant a mindset in our daughters that they need a man’s stamp of approval on major decisions they have to make.”
Welch believes fathers should focus on raising strong and independent women instead of controlling their lives by being overprotective.
Based on the response from Welch’s Facebook post, fathers may need to put their guns and rifles away and take a new approach to daughters and dating.
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