Daughters

[Mtn.man]

Mines mean.

[Shodown]

My daughter is only 10 months old, but I cant freakin' wait til she's old enough to ride dirt bikes, shoot guns and work on my Camaro with me.

[JoeT]

my daughters are 8 and 9... this week my 9 year old and I did 4 oil changes and a brake job in the garage.

and my 8 year old and I just built another lower. having little fingers around makes it easier

[hollohas]

My girl will be 2 next month. She is a major Daddy's girl and I love every second of it much to my wife's chagrin (she wants a Mommy's girl). She loves to hike and fish with me and shooting is not too far away...

[Ronin13]

I don't have kids... yet, but it does remind me of how an open mind improved a daughters life. See I used to date a girl who's father was a retired USMC Master Gunny, he was very protective of his daughter and had one of those unique daddy-daughter relationships, he always referred to her as "Daddy's little angel" even at the age of 24. Young fmr. Army CPL Ronin steps into the scene and Daddy meets his angel's new boyfriend. Of course he gave me hell because I didn't go into the Marines (understandable) but once he found out that I took his daughter shooting, taught her some of the newer and more updated tactics that daddy didn't know he immediately accepted me and thought I was the greatest boyfriend she's ever had... "Sure glad my little angel isn't dating one of those free-spirit, veggie eating, gun hating, hippie liberals!" I really wish me and her had worked out, that would have been an awesome father in law!
Sorry for the long story, but I'm sure a lot of you fathers out there would enjoy that story. Give those girls your love every time you can, treat them like a princess and don't let them settle for anything less than a man to take them off your hands and do the same.

[Mobat555]

Mine is 6 and enjoys doing the stuff that Dad does.

[RMGOdirector]

My 9 year old is a hardcore freedom advocate, and has been since she could speak. She'll hang out with me no matter what I'm doing, and ask "Can we do that some more?" every time.

Every time I get a new firearm, I always take a photo with Libby holding it.

We homeschooled Libby until recently, so she drank our Kool-Aid hard.

And though she's a pretty little gal and has princess tendencies, she's an outdoorsman as well.

Case in point: my church has a big Father/Daughter (and Grandfather/Granddaughter) campout every summer. It happens up at 9200 ft elevation, near Gould, west of Cameron Pass.

It's 3-4 days of camping, firemaking, ATV riding, rope tying, fishing, archery, log sawing, Bible studying, praising God (under a canopy of blue sky and incredible stars) and, you guessed it, lots of guns.

My daughter can't get enough of it. I have to block out that campout on my schedule every year, right away, and nothing is allowed to touch the dates.

We return home muddy, tired, sunburned, and with huge smiles on our faces. And a bond that is tough to break.

(Oh, yeah: we do the same with our boys toward the end of the summer, but it's darn unique with the girls).

Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters by Dr. Meg Meeker is a good reference book for what this kind of activity does with our kids.