Daddy/daughter dances

[treehugger]

I think there are the icky daddy/daughter dates and then there are guys go places and hang out with their daughters - and call it a date but in a totally informal, non-squicky way. My dad and I went "on dates" together. Mostly, we went to the city and went shopping (yes, I had a really cool dad) and had lunch or supper. It was just time with dad doing fun stuff. There was nothing icky or sexual about it. There were no pledges of purity and crap like that. It was just fun. I think we stopped doing that when I was like 13 or 14. Right around the time I started getting interested in guys - oh nooes! My dad did it all wrong :naughty: I am sure if he had done the whole date thing with the creepy sexual undertones like the fundie dads do, I would never had had so many boyfriends! :lol:

ETA: I just lost my "handsex" virginity. Crap. I was saving that for someone really special!

[FeministShrew]

One of the local Chic-Fil-as is advertising a daddy-daughter date night this Saturday. :roll:

[treehugger]

One of the local Chic-Fil-as is advertising a daddy-daughter date night this Saturday. :roll:

Now that is creepy.

[almostfundylyte]

One of the local Chic-Fil-as is advertising a daddy-daughter date night this Saturday. :roll:

Our ChikFilA did that last week. One of my FB friends posted about being so excited to go on a date with his little girl. It sounded sweet until I saw the pictures, his little girl is high school age. The way he's always referred to her in posts, I assumed she was 5-6. He also gave her a ring. He looks thrilled in the photos, she just looked squicked.

[OnceModestTwiceShy]

To me that is icky and embarrassing for a tween/teen. It was for me. I just wanted to go hide away forever at that age.

Meh. It depends on the kid. I was thrilled to get my period and "become a woman" (yeah...I was a weird kid :D ) and, when it happened at school, I couldn't wait to come home and tell Mom, who made the appropriate big deal over it. If we had had the money, I would have loved an evening out.

ETA: Luckily, although we are Ashkenazi Jews, my mom did not know about the face-slapping tradition. :?

[valsa]

Meh. It depends on the kid. I was thrilled to get my period and "become a woman" (yeah...I was a weird kid :D ) and, when it happened at school, I couldn't wait to come home and tell Mom, who made the appropriate big deal over it. If we had had the money, I would have loved an evening out.

ETA: Luckily, although we are Ashkenazi Jews, my mom did not know about the face-slapping tradition. :?

I agree that it depends on the kid and the circumstances.

Before I got my period, I would have been super excited to do something to "celebrate" it due to the whole "I'm a grown woman now" thing (despite the fact I was still a preteen)

However, when I actually ended up starting my period, I had such horrible pain from the cramping that doing something special for it would have seemed like a cruel mockery.

[OnceModestTwiceShy]

I agree that it depends on the kid and the circumstances.

Before I got my period, I would have been super excited to do something to "celebrate" it due to the whole "I'm a grown woman now" thing (despite the fact I was still a preteen)

However, when I actually ended up starting my period, I had such horrible pain from the cramping that doing something special for it would have seemed like a cruel mockery.

Well, there's that. I had mind-boggling cramps before, but once it came the pain stopped. (Sadly this has NOT been the pattern since.) The worst part (I think I may have told this story here before) was that, since I was only about 9, it didn't even occur to the school nurse that I might be getting my period, so she talked out of her ass about me having a stomachache because I ate an "unhealthy breakfast" and wouldn't give me a goddamn Tylenol.

[thekate]

To me officially naming something "daddy-daughter", "mommy-son"-events seems weird. I'm all for parents spending one-on-one time with their children, and if these events can help them do that, then fine.

It just seems like the way these events are planned, that they tend to fall into a lot of traditional gender-role-traps that I don't really like, especially if it's schools-sponsored.

I just hope that there is a balance, so that the dads will also take their daughters out into nature/ride bikes/read books/cook or whatever the dad enjoys doing and that the moms will do likewise with their sons.

I used to go to a Girl Scout camp every autumn for Father-Daughter Weekend. Saturday night was the big Father-Daughter Square Dance/Costume Party, but it was preceded by woodworking classes, boating, and hiking. Then on Sunday we (well, the dads) chain sawed trees and we boarded up the cabins for winter.

The Girl Scouts are awesome.

[keen23]

My kid's elementary school does organize father/daughter/children activities. It's a real push from the school system to get the Dads more involved with the kids. Doughnuts with Dad, dances. They also do things like Family Movie Night, and are planning a spring family baseball themed event. I think there are some mother/son specific activities too, but I don't have any sons.

[stressed]

I went to a father daughter dance when I was a kid. They aren't anything new. It is one of the my favorite childhood memories as a child. I got a pretty dress, he bought me flowers and we went to a fancy restaurant. I was in 4th grade so this was a big deal. I think we danced maybe 2 times then the other dads sat around and talked while the girls all danced, it was through campfire.

[mlady]

My elementary school hoseted a father/daughter cake bake contest and I remember doing the bunny-hop so I suppose ti was a dance in some ways. This was back in the 60's btw. My own daugher went to a couple of these "dances" with her dad sponsored by the Girl Scouts. I don't think much dancing went on, mostly games and such, but there was always a theme and they dressed accordingly (1950's sock-hop and hawaiian luau if I remember correctly). This was in the 90's. There was never a "dress up fancy and have a date with your dad" event that I'm aware of.

[michelle_notduggar]

My elementary school did this every year. I think by the time I was leaving, people started to bring their moms, brothers, etc. and the name has changed since. My dad worked the night shift, so this was one of the few times I was able to spend a lot of time with him. The dancing with him was basically just walking with my feet on his, nothing too squicky :lol: . The girls mostly danced with each other. Some of my fondest memories as a child were the father-daughter dances.