Fathers, listen up! Tom Clancy and John Grisham will not lead your daughters safely through our noxious carnal jungle. You, however, may do so after reading just 267 pages of "Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters: 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know" (published by Regnery - a HUMAN EVENTS sister company).
Dads, if you read nothing else in your life, I urge you to read pediatrician Dr. Meg Meeker's very sane, very clear but very chilling book. "Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters" is easily the most sensible fathering manual available for men who cherish their daughters. My favorite Meekerism: "If she knows that you are there, dependable and full of love for her, you will have taught her this great lesson: Life is good. Good men help make it so."
We all need the salve of those healing words, branded as we still are by Al Kinsey's 1948 slander of our fathers - our World War II heroes, our Greatest Generation.
Dr. Meeker challenges every father to retake his rightful place in his daughter's life. "[Y]ou need to train your daughter from an early age to look to you for decisions. She will never excel at anything if she doesn't learn to respect your help."
Do it, says Meeker, and you and daughter will be the better for having accepted the challenge: "There is a solution to the problem of girls' having sex too soon and with too many boys. The answer is: YOU." No, dads, Meeker doesn't mince words.
Meg Meeker certainly doesn't dismiss mom's importance as a role model. However, years of dealing with girls in her clinical practice has shown her the importance of dad's position as his daughter's moral and ethical champion. Dr. Meeker documents the girl's need for a loving conservative dad as her guardian, her protector, her guide.
Dad is the bulwark against his girl's becoming victimized by our flood of pornography and generally repellent media. In a restrictive society, dad had greater freedom to be lax. In a laissez-faire society where even the best child is vulnerable, dad must fight to safeguard his children's lives.
Meeker posts the danger signs as well as the routes that dads can take to preserve the mental, physical and spiritual safety of their treasured daughters in a toxic culture. Her warnings and her wisdom are backed both by valid research and by alarming and inspiring clinical interviews.
"Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters" is a tribute to fathers that furthers the lives of their daughters.
Meeker's earlier book "Epidemic: How Teen Sex Is Killing Our Kids" (Regnery) was a brilliant expose of what children face in our sex-and-sadism-media-saturated society. Now, Dr. Meeker documents how the most important man in a girl's life shapes her future.
Meeker has counseled enough girls to mean what her title says. Largely because of the sexual snares facing them today, the choice is clear: strong fathers, strong daughters or weak fathers, weakened daughters.
It turns out that girls need fathers who were rather standard issue before the sexual revolution - a strong, conservative dad who sticks to his guns is a girl's best protection from unwed pregnancy, school failure, drug and alcohol use, sexual diseases and, yes, a broken heart.
Also, a strong dad is a girl's best bet for marrying the right guy. So how is dad to do all this? Meeker outlines straightforward ways for dad and daughter to bond. The good doctor's manual for dadhood shores up dad's basic psyche - his natural protective wariness. Moms, listen up, dad's bear hugs more than justify his nixing makeup and provocative clothing.
Meeker documents why girls need their dads to be their heroes. One heroic road she urges dad to take up is the challenge of spirituality - if only because faith in God turns out to be strongly correlated with his daughter's well being. Even agnostics and atheists can relax, since evolutionist David Loye documented Darwin's conclusion in "The Descent of Man" that "an ennobling belief in God" is "important for human evolution."
Meeker provides the current sinister data on the effects of our secular sexual revolution alongside stories of steadfast fathers who brought their struggling daughters back to health and happiness.
This is a kind and a scholarly book, rich with heartfelt concern and genuine moral insight. All who read it have spent their time wisely and many will find it a salvation for their lives and that of their daughters.
Dr. Meeker has done her job well. Your job now is to put aside Clancy and Grisham to spend time with "Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters."