Rules for Dating My Daughter

My brother told me about an awesome t-shirt he saw a guy wearing recently.  It had the "rules" for dating his daughter printed on it.  Before Scott could explain further, I railed on him.  Oh how I can't stand the idea of dads proclaiming they're not going to let their daughters date until they're 25 or that they'll greet their daughter's future prom date with a shotgun.  For a moment I thought my feminist brother might actually like these types of jokes.  He interrupted my rant to finish telling me what the t-shirt actually said. I should have known better of my brother all along. 

Rules for Dating My Daughter

1. I don’t make the rules.

2. You don’t make the rules.

3. She makes the rules.

4. Her body, her rules.

Awesome.  Pretty much sums up how I was raised, right up to when my husband proposed to me after not asking my father's permission first.  My dad's friends were shocked, but as my dad explained, Chris needed my permission to marry him, not his.

But I digress.  To write this blog post I googled the exact text for the t-shirt my brother was telling me about.  I was astonished that the first link that popped up was a blog post titled "Worst Dad of 2014."  Seriously?  Seriously!!  That's the best she could come up with for "worst" dad?  It never occurred to me that teaching a daughter that she has a say over her own body and empowering her to be strong, self-assured and capable of making good decisions when she grows up would make her father the worst there is.

Out of morbid curiosity, I read the comments which were written by people who clearly missed the point of the t-shirt.  There were attacks on men the commenters claimed were missing their "anatomical parts" and "browbeaten by PC women or cowards who wants sex without responsibility"  There was a proclamation about how only God makes the rules and opinions on how "her body, her rules" is code for abortion rights and how the t-shirt exemplifies poor parenting advice.  Reading that all made me want to order one of these shirts even though I don't have a daughter. 

And only because we don't have a daughter, my husband won't be wearing this t-shirt.  He's still a pretty awesome dad though.  Instead, you'll find our sons wearing their "Mommy's Little Feminist" t-shirts.