The 2017 Parenting Meeting provided so many answers for me when it came to my daughters. I am a single father and not by choice. My lovely wife, Patricia, has gone to heaven too early, and she left me to tend to our two beautiful girls. She has been gone for almost five years now, but I have never re-married. No plans to do it also.
Maybe when the right woman came, the one who will give that spark back within me, and also love my daughters as if she were their own, well, that would be the day. But for now, I am up to workshops, forums, and meetings because I have no clue how to be a daddy to two teenage girls. I am having the most challenging time of my life right now. How can I talk to them about boys, or about makeup and dating, and sex? My mind is going all sorts of crazy right now, most notably with our eldest, Camille. She seems to be a bit “cathartic” these days. I needed to know what it was all about, as I learned in that meeting I attended.
I planned to bring her to the burger place we used to love, but when she heard me say it, her eyes grew wide, and asked me – Can we go to a different place, Daddy? I would love some brown sugar cream puff with winter malt milk tea right now. I was, “What?” She sounded as if she belonged to another planet.
Anyway, I tried my best to talk to her, and I was not prepared at all. But I know I handled it well when she said words like “crush,” “he likes me,” “date,” “Saturday,” and the worst of it all, “boyfriend.” She was asking me if she can go out on a date and instantly thought about all the rules when dating my teenage daughter. My Camille is fifteen, and well, I met her mom when we were fourteen, so, will I let her go? I just told her one thing – do you trust this person enough to be on a date with him? She said yes, and I gave her the benefit of the doubt. My daughter is a good judge of character, and she is not naïve. She is a smart girl because we raised her to be such, and I know she will do well with their decisions and choices. I said, yes.
Of course, I had one request. I told her that I wanted to bring her to the place – not meet the date – and that I will wait for them. She said “deal” and kissed me – thank you, daddy.