From Pia de Solenni: Real Romance Begins with Parents. In all the discussion these days about how we let girls dress, etc., she thinks that we’re mostly scratching the surface, when we could be looking deeper.
The whole article is worth a read, but I get a big kick out of the beginning:
One of the best perspectives on parenting girls that I’ve heard came from a woman I knew in D.C.
Latin American immigrants, she and her husband were both hard workers and dedicated to their growing family. She related how her husband took it upon himself to start a tradition with his young daughters: giving them flowers. Typically, it was on their birthdays. He wanted them to grow up accustomed to being treated well by their father so that they wouldn’t fall for the first guy who said something nice to them or spent a little money on them. He wanted them to realize that they were treasures to be cherished and not cast about like something worthless, taking it all off for someone who couldn’t care less the next morning. As their father, he was shaping their expectations for romance, not only in the way he treated their mother, but in his gestures towards them.
Yay, daddies!
There’s also this, which I think is crucial:
Real love means being wholly committed to a person come what may, not for the moment, not just so long as the feeling is there, not just as long as the partner is attractive, not just as long as one’s needs are met, not just as long as plans don’t change.
Amen, and amen.
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