Single Fathers aren't sissies, especially if he has daughters. Fathers and sons can always relate to each other through sports or building something, but unless a father truly appreciates ballet dance classes and dolls, being a single father to a little girl can be a real challenge. The very combing of her hair every day may prove to be a task beyond his capability, shopping for clothes can be daunting at best, downright puzzling at worst. Listening to the chatter of the trials and tribulations that make up little girls' days can sound like a well written mystery novel, especially to a single father with no wife to help decipher things.
Doing a really good job with a daughter means winging it with a true lack of knowledge and practical experience. Sacrifice becomes his middle name especially if the ball game is at the same time as the dance recital. A night on the town with buddies takes on a whole new meaning where spontaneity, drinking too much beer and staying out past eleven become things of the past.
Attentively watching a two hour dance show in which his daughter spends all of three minutes on stage is true pride and love. Just learning how to put together the costume, what and where to buy the accessories and donning the costume can test the best of moms, but for a single father to sew pink ribbons on ballet slippers must feel like climbing the tallest mountain in the world with asthma.
A lonely father raising a daughter can feel isolated if there are no other children in the home. The only thing harder might be raising two daughters. They have each other and if he has no one special in his life, he may spend an extraordinary amount of time alone, even if his daughters are in the next room.
Fortunately, the father/daughter bond is a strong one that can overcome most anything, even the loss of a mother and wife through death or divorce. The single father that relates to his daughter through her life and not his is truly a man who not only is a wonderful father, but a caring and thoughtful life partner.