Father Daughter

Since I didn't have a photo of Uwe and Astrid on their day outing today, I did a search for father daughter images on yahoo. I was so touched by what I saw. There were photos of fathers holding up their baby daughter, daughters sitting on their father's laps, fathers dancing with their daughter on her wedding day, daughters on their father's shoulders, a father showing his daughter how to throw a football, and lots of other sweet father daughter moments caught on film.

It just makes you realize that the father daughter relationship is such a special, unique relationship. Your father is the first man you love and you go through life at first thinking that he's the most handsome, strongest, most intelligent man on this planet, but as you grow older you realize that your dad is only mortal. And as a father you want to protect your daughter because she's your precious little girl who is so vulnerable in the harsh world outside, but as she gets older you have to let go and let her make choices for herself so she can eventually fly from the nest.

Uwe and I watched the Hulk Hogan reality show on VH1 called "Hogan Knows Best" which features Hulk Hogan (yes, the wrestler) and his family which includes a wife, a son, and a seventeen year old daughter. We got to watch a real father daughter relationship play out in front of us, with the mom dynamic, thrown into the mix. It was hilarious. Being parents ourselves now, it's probably even more fun for us to watch because we'll be dealing with that soon enough and we can now see it from the parents' perspective.

Hulk Hogan's daughter Brooke had been asked on a date by her brother's friend. She was upset because she didn't think her dad would let her go on the date...ever in her life...because he is so overprotective. The mom was listening sympathetically...having the in-between-role of wanting to allow her daughter to go but also trying to be a team with her husband who was ultra-strict...so she said "You never know." I got a laugh at her trying to coach her daughter on the right way to "ask" her dad...rather than having a sad face and defeatist attitude ...she was telling her to be upbeat and showed her by bouncing up and down and saying "hi daddy"...to soften up her dad's heart.

In the end she was allowed to go on a date with the boy but her dad insisted they take his daughter's car on her date, in which he had secretly installed a tracking device so that he could track where they were going and how fast they were driving. They went to an amusement park and came home a little after 8 PM. Everything seemed to go fine until his son tells him that the boy who just went out on a date with his daughter has nipple rings. We watched as Hulk Hogan's face flushed red with anger. hehe.

It's going to be interesting to see how Uwe and I deal with all these issues as they come up with Astrid. We've already both agreed to discuss things behind closed doors at first so that we can both be on the same page and show a united front. I have a feeling that Uwe will have done a great job setting the foundation so that when it does come time for her to go out with out us...Uwe can just say "Be safe" and Astrid will know exactly what that means.