Daddy's little girl is growing up

Okay, I promised when I began writing these articles that I would not shy away from any topic, particularly when you might benefit from my hard earned experience. Therefore, with reckless abandon we will tackle our little girls passage into womanhood this week. As a father with three daughters I have lived to tell about this with two of them. Let me begin by saying this is probably as difficult a time as you will have as a dad. At least it was for me. Not because of the physical and mental changes that were occurring in my daughters, but my own internal battle with the reality that my little girls were growing up.

Let’s begin by talking about what menstruation is. I know this may seem silly but you would be amazed how many men really don’t know and its important for you to understand to relieve fears both you and your daughter may have. From a textbook approach, menstruation is the discharging of blood and dead cell debris from the uterus through the vagina by adult women at approximately monthly intervals between puberty and menopause. In layman’s terms, its nature’s process of discarding an egg that was not fertilized so that a new one can go through the cycle. As a general rule, this cycle repeats about every 28 days. Most men are content to accept that once a month this will be something that your wife, girlfriend, daughter, co-worker, etc., will be going through for about a week. Many will refer to this time as having their period.

Keep in mind that children mature differently and reach puberty at different ages. One of my daughters began her period at 12 years of age while another did not begin until 14 years of age. A friend of mine had a daughter begin as early as 11 years of age. The younger the child, the more anxiety they will have and less likely they are to understand what is occurring in their body. Also keep in mind that it is very likely your daughter will not want to come to you at all to discuss this or ask for help. Many girls don’t want to discuss something like this with their dad because they are embarrassed while others feel shame. I highly recommend enlisting some help from a female figure you feel your daughter trusts. It can be their mother, a teacher, grandmother, etc. It’s important that this person is someone your child will feel comfortable with. Neither of my older daughters felt comfortable talking to me in the beginning so I enlisted the help of a female family member who had a good relationship with them and also had teenage daughters.

Go To Page: 1 2 3

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic