10 Secrets Every Father Should Know

In today’s increasingly complicated world, it’s often difficult for parents to connect with their daughters–and especially so for fathers. In this unique and invaluable guide, Dr. Meg Meeker, a pediatrician with more than twenty years’ experience counseling girls, reveals that a young woman’s relationship with her father is far more important than we’ve ever realized. To become a strong, confident woman, a daughter needs her father’s attention, protection, courage, and wisdom. Dr. Meeker shares the ten secrets every father needs to know in order to strengthen or rebuild bonds with his daughter and shape her life–and his own–for the better. Inside you’ll discover:

• the essential virtues of strong fathers–and how to develop them
• the cues daughters take from their dads on everything from self-respect to drugs, alcohol, and sex
• the truth about ground rules (girls do want them, despite their protests)
• the importance of becoming a hero to your daughter
• the biggest mistake a dad can make–and the ramifications
• the fact that girls actually depend on their dads’ guidance into adulthood
• steps fathers can follow to help daughters avoid disastrous decisions and mistakes
• ways in which a father’s faith–or lack thereof–will influence his daughter
• essential communication strategies for different stages of a girl’s life
• true stories of “prodigal daughters”–and how their fathers helped to bring them back

Dads, you are far more powerful than you think–and if you follow Dr. Meeker’s advice, the rewards will be unmatched.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (August 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345499395
• ISBN-13: 978-0345499394
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

The most important person in a young girl’s life? Her father.

Teen health expert Dr. Meg Meeker has the data and clinical experience to prove it. After more than twenty years of counseling girls, she knows that fathers, more than anyone else, set the course for their daughters’ lives.

Now Dr. Meeker, author of the critically acclaimed Epidemic: How Teen Sex Is Killing Our Kids, shows you how to strengthen--or rebuild--your bond with your daughter, and how to use it to shape her life, and yours, for the better.

Directly challenging the feminist attack on traditional masculinity, Dr. Meeker demonstrates that the most important factor for girls growing up into confident, well-adjusted women is a strong father with conservative values. To have one, she shows, is the best protection against eating disorders, failure in school, STDs, unwed pregnancy, and drug or alcohol abuse—and the best predictor of academic achievement, successful marriage, and a satisfying emotional life.

Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters reveals:

• The essential characteristics and virtues of strong fathers—and how to develop them

• How daughters take cues from their fathers on everything from drug use, drinking, smoking, and having sex, to self-esteem, moodiness, and seeking attention from boys

• Why girls want you to place restrictions on them (even though they’ll complain when you do)

• How to become a hero to your daughter—and why she needs that more than anything

• The one mistake fathers make that is the primary cause of girls "hooking up"

• Why girls depend on the guidance of fathers through, and even beyond, their college years

• Recipe for disaster: the notion that girls "need to make their own decisions and mistakes"

• Why girls need God—and how your faith, or lack thereof, will influence her

• How to communicate with your daughter—and how not to

• True stories of "prodigal daughters"—and how their fathers helped bring them back

Dads, you are far more powerful than you think you are. Your daughters need the support that only fathers can provide—and if you are willing to follow Dr. Meeker’s advice on how to guide your daughter, to stand between her and a toxic culture, your rewards will be unmatched.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

 

About the Author

MEG MEEKER, M.D., has spent the past twenty years practicing pediatric and adolescent medicine and counseling teens and parents. Dr. Meeker is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a fellow of the National Advisory Board of The Medical Institute. Dr. Meeker is a popular speaker on teen issues and is frequently heard on nationally syndicated radio and television programs. She lives and works in Traverse City, Michigan, where she shares a medical practice with her husband, Walter. They have four children.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.