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."
(Here are a few of the comments submitted by our readers. Click to view all Please remember the opinions expressed by our readers are in no way those of Human Events, nor are they condoned by us, and we reserve the right to remove abusive posts.)
Report Abusive Post: I'm running out to get this book today! Phenomenal message! I work with high school students and the need for strong fathers in the lives of these students is crystal clear. I applaud Meeker and her courage to tell it like it is!
Oct 17, 2007 @ 08:11 AM
Michelle Evans, Saint George, UtahReport Abusive Post: Between family court, child support and an ex full of false accusations, my daughters life, my life, all our lives are screwed. Go give this woman some money for an idea thats too late.
Jul 13, 2009 @ 03:37 PM
miggy, australiaReport Abusive Post: I believe we ought to re-discover "in sickness and in health" and "for better or for worse". But those vows don't mean much to a secularly oriented society. Because when man and woman marry these days, do they truly marry with God as their witness? Is she prepared to submit and be his best friend, or is the illusion of equality a big issue for her? Is he prepared to take responsibility and love his wife as much as he loves himself (the two being one flesh)? It seems today men are married to their friends, and women to their friends, and the opposite sex has become another piece of merchandise to consume.
Jul 13, 2009 @ 04:44 PM
Mattias, SwedenReport Abusive Post: I'm so happy to see rabid feminism being countered by intelligent, balanced, healthy people. It's about time! Men are slandered horribly in all media, not to mention taking a real beating evey time they step into family court. My compliments to the Dr. Meeker for having the courage to promote her ideas.
Jul 13, 2009 @ 08:17 PM
Mike S, Santa Cruz, CAReport Abusive Post: It is not that fathers don't want to be there for their daughters, it is that powerful forces oppose this, part of a divide and conquer strategy of rule to make everyone ignorant, helpless and dependent.
#uck these @ssholes. I have fought them to a stalemate and saved my daughters. You can too, if you are determined enough.
http://www.divorcefraud.org/modules/article/view.article.php/21
Bill Ross
(Electronics Design Engineer)
Jul 14, 2009 @ 08:53 AM
Bill Ross, Ottawa, Canada
Report Abusive Post: Incredible, a declaration that femamism has failed!!! Unfortunately it is too late. The divorce rate in the U.S. is at 70% now, more if you include California. Fathers are virtually guaranteed to lose custody of their kids when they are taken to court. Add this to the effect of an allogation of abuse or sexual abuse, statistically not substantiated, against the father and you have most men not able or simply unwilling to fight to be that needed father for their daughter. The feminist have won. Everything they wanted, and more, has been accomplished by them and this is what we have. I have spent most of my career overseas looking from the outside in and my wife is from Germany. She sees what has happened her in the U.S. and we make sure that we have a traditional household, like present day Germany or what the U.S. had before the 70s. I had to warn my wife that she would be ridiculed by not a few U.S. Women because she is a stay at home mom, her husband is not only the bread winner but the head of the household and her total focus on the family. Unfortunately, unless we shift this country back from a Matriarchal society to a Patriarchal society, this will only get worse.
Jul 14, 2009 @ 08:24 PM
Bill, HawaiiReport Abusive Post: Every daughter needs a strong father. One that will give her the love and guidance she needs to be strong. I think it's important that Dr. Meeker acknowledged the fact that fathers and daughters have a relationship unlike any other, and depending on his actions, depends on how we daughters grow. I'm sixteen years old, and lost my mother to cancerous brain tumors at age twelve. After three long years of suffering and struggle, she was able to die peacefully in her sleep. My father is the only biological parent I have now, and I'd be lost without him. After all the mistakes I've made, from being hospitalized for attempted suicide, to being arrests for drugs, to having pre-marital sex. From all these experiences that occurred basing from today's society, I have become stronger. I have now been sober for eight months, and have taken a vow of celibacy. My relationship with my Father in Heaven, and my biological father are so much better.
I'd love to get this book for both my father and I, so that we may grow together. Thank you again, Dr. Meeker.