Jim Daly

Daly Focus Blog

FOTF logo
  • Home
  • Family & Home
  • Current Events
  • Focus News
  • About

Lean into Your Daughter

Dad, don’t let your teenage daughter fool you. She needs you. I know her attitude may not always reflect that, but it’s true. She’s caught in a whirlwind of hormones and emotional upheaval. Her self-worth is under attack, and her social world is topsy-turvy. On top of that, she’s physically growing, changing, and feeling awkward. With you. With everybody.

Over the next few years, your daughter’s attitude will tempt you to disengage from her, to keep her at arm’s length. Don’t. She’ll misinterpret your pulling away as rejecting her. She’ll think that you don’t want her around anymore.

Instead of pulling back … lean in.

Leaning into your daughter’s world – even in ways that seem insignificant at the time – has an enormous impact. The research proves it. When dads engage with their girls, every measure of a healthy childhood improves. Depression, low self-esteem, early sex, and drug and alcohol use all go down. IQs and graduation rates from high school and college both go up.

Dad, take a deep breath and be encouraged. Your daughter isn’t pulling away from you. She’s temporarily leaning back as she sorts through the puzzle pieces of her life for answers. Connect with her, raise her with a moral compass, and empower her to become everything she can be. With time, she’ll find her way through her confusion and, eventually, lean back in to you.

Sign up for the weekly e-newsletter

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, parenting November 16, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Related Posts

  • Dog Days of Marriage
  • How the Christian Worldview Inspires Uncommon Hope for Believers
  • Kids and technologyReconnect in Real Life: Tips to Reduce Screen Time

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Jim-Daly President of Focus on the Family
Jim Daly
with Paul Batura

Listen to Jim’s
New Podcast

ReFocus with Jim Daly

Newsletter Sign Up

Posts by Jim

Building a Bridge to Forgiveness

How to Talk to Your Kids About Pornography

The Power of Words

Topics

  • Current Events
  • Family and Home
  • Focus Events
  • Uncategorized

Daly Focus

Jim-Daly Jim Daly is a husband, father and President of Focus on the Family and host of its National Radio Hall of Fame broadcast. His blog, Daly Focus, is full of timely commentary and wisdom designed to help you navigate and understand today’s culture. His latest book is Marriage Done Right.

Jim Daly Blog

Home
About
Posting Guidelines
Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy
FAQs

© 2025 Focus on the Family

Connect with Me

Facebook
X
YouTube