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"Daddy you have to leave my room while I get dressed!" one of many coming of age statements my now 9 year old daughter has told me. There is nothing in the world greater to me than my bond with my daughter. Since she was a preemie in the hospital, I have at her side. Raising a girl without the help of a woman, up to this point has not been that difficult. In fact raising a girl or a boy, in the early stages of life, the differences are minimal.

As a society, we are accustom to seeing women raise children (boys and girls) by themselves. We have been programmed to think that the woman by far will be a better single parent than a man will be. A man be single parent to a girl? R you serious?! To some that just will not work. It can't work because men don't know anything about women. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! I am here to tell you differently. For the guys that do step up to the plate, we know a lot more than most women will give us credit for.

I don't buy the notion that it's easier for women to raise a boy because, boys have emotional needs that are best satisfied when a male figure is in his life. Trust me, I speak from experience, as good as a parent as my mom was to me, there were just some things that I wish I could have told my dad or another male figure. I know that I will not be able to satisfy those emotional needs that my daughter has because of my gender. Just to say that a man can't raise a girl because it would be to hard or he doesn't know how to is just plain silly.

The first and foremost important thing for my daughter to understand is that she is to respect herself. It is vitally important that we as fathers teach our daughters that her privacy is to be respected by all male figures including us. We as fathers must treat our own relationship with the same care, respect and worthiness that we someday will want a man to treat our daughters with. If we do these things, raising our daughters without a woman will go over smooth like silk. We may not be able to give them all the things a woman can, but we can raise them to be beautiful, intelligent, respected women in our society. I should know because I am raising one now.

Learn more about this author, Thomas Baskin.
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