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I Was A Happy Daddy’s Girl
An essay about dads raising girls, and moms raising boys
In light of the Tyre Nichols situation I wrote about earlier, some commenters were upset when I said “women were not meant to raise men” — they forgot to read the part where I said that they could, but sons require unique answers from men and vice versa when it comes to men raising girls to be women. I decided to share my story here, briefly in honor of my father who transitioned from this world on December 2012.
I remember my father telling me one day,
“Erica — I did not see myself as a 24-year-old man, raising two girls by myself. No young man sees that.”
I nodded my head because of course, most young men of today do not even dream of caring for children.
My father did not say this to say he did not dream of a family. He said it because it was surprising. He and my mom got married a few years after I was born, and I recall her always fixing hot oatmeal in the mornings and later she and I watching the small television set waiting for Wonder Woman to come on, and then her stories.
My father worked at the shipyard at first, for a few years — working odd hours into the night to provide a roof over our heads and…
