Daddy-Daughter Love
I should probably start with a disclaimer that I am truly biased because I have the best Daddy ever made—EVER. No, no, I understand that some of you may THINK that your own Daddy is the bestest, but I’m sorry to tell you he’s not because mine is.
Now that we have that out of the way…
My friends know that I have practically placed my father on a pedestal and had his feet glued to it. Because he’s AWESOME…hello? Ok, have to stop the hero worship for a minute. But in all seriousness, he is. My Dad is one of those men who will do anything to help anyone, but when it comes to his baby girls, watch out. There is nothing he wouldn’t do for us, even if it involved jail time. Which would be a shame because then who would cut my grass?
Daddy raised us to be strong, independent, self-sufficient women. But he also showed us with his care and consideration towards my Mom exactly what we should expect from the men we eventually chose to share our lives with. That lesson didn’t always take 100%, but underneath the starry eyes that boys sometimes cloud our judgment with, it’s a solid foundation.
I recently had the privilege of seeing Daddy-Daughter Love from a different perspective…that of an adult looking at it from the outside. I met a male friend’s daughter and was able to watch them interact for a bit. You have never seen a daughter as crazy about her Daddy as this one was. Well, with the possible exception of yours truly of course. But it’s not all about me. This little girl loves her Daddy so much you can practically SEE the golden lasso she has tied around him. But here’s the best part – the feeling is completely mutual.
Now some of you are probably saying “Duh L.D.! Of course it is!” Except that isn’t always the case. I’ve seen plenty of my male friends interact with the daughters, and while the love and affection is absolutely there, you don’t always have the pleasure of seeing out right adoration. There can be many reasons for it, some fathers (some mothers too) just aren’t naturally affectionate. Some feel the need to put a bit of distance between themselves and their kids. Some just don’t know how. All of these things break my heart frankly. There is no feeling in the world like the unbridled trust and love that a child can show to you. And embracing it just opens you up to even more love – it’s a never ending, joyous cycle.
It got me to thinking about my own Daddy’s love of me from a different perspective. I’ve always known he loves me, but I realized in watching my friend that even when I didn’t know it, my Dad has often looked at me with that same adoring gaze. There’s something special about a bond between parents and their children of the opposite gender. There is of course something special in the bond between parents and their children of the same gender too, but it kicks up a notch with opposites—just look at any mother and her son. I have never once questioned if my Daddy loved me or if he would be there for me. I realize now that my unshakable faith in him started a long, long time ago, simply because he WAS there for me and showed me in a million little ways how important I was to him.
The thing I still wonder if my Daddy, my friend, and all of the Daddies of Daughters out there know is that just as you would do anything for your daughters, we would do ANYTHING for you. There is no mountain we wouldn’t climb, no ocean we wouldn’t cross, no bully we wouldn’t do our best to beat down for you. We know you don’t expect us to – and would probably be appalled at learning we’d taken a baseball bat to the knees of some thug we thought had wronged you (ok, that only happened ONCE, I swear!) – but we would do all of that and more anyway just because we are absolutely as crazy about you as you are about us.
We may not always say it, so I wanted to make sure I did as clearly as possible right now on behalf of all the Daddy’s Little Girls out there: Daddy, I love you more than you can imagine, and no matter what happens, no matter who else I may love in my life, know that you were the first love of my life, and no one will ever take your place!
