Father - daughter relationship

We all have unique relationships with our fathers, but are these unique father-daughter dynamics influencing and even taking their toll on our love lives as adults?

It’s a common cliché that girls who have issues with their fathers, grow up to be women who have issues with men. But can a woman’s relationship with her father really have such a significant influence on her relationships and dating habits as an adult? It would seem so. According to experts and recently conducted studies, the nature of a woman’s relationship with her father is almost always reflected in her relationship patterns as a grown woman.

ARE YOU DATING YOUR DAD?

 

Modern psychology and research tells us that young girls and women typically look to their father for a representation of male companionship standards, which are known to transpire into the realm of romantic and even sexual relationships.

The quality of father-daughter relationships is believed by experts and found in research, to be a huge deciding factor when it comes to romantic relationships. Women with good communication with their fathers also have significantly better communication with their boyfriends, when compared to women with low communication with their fathers. When a woman doesn't trust men, can't maintain an ongoing relationship, doesn’t know how to communicate, is sexually promiscuous, or is too co-dependent, this is probably because her relationship with her father lacked trust and/or communication.

DEALING WITH DAD ISSUES

 

Poor fathering and the ‘daddy issues’ that result can have a significant impact on your ability to sustain a healthy relationship, often manifesting in tendencies that go unnoticed for years because of their habitual nature.

A great way to see if, or how your relationship with your father might be affecting your love life is to compare and contrast past relationships. Write a list of all your past relationships, whether they were romantic and official, or sexual and casual and detail all the problems you experienced in each one. Then make a new list of all the problems or difficulties you may have encountered in your relationship with your father to date. Place both lists side-by-side. You might be surprised by the amount of father-daughter issues in your relationships staring back at you. The same exercise can be used to reveal all the positive effects of your father-daughter relationship.

If negative tendencies seem to be dictating the outcome of most, or all, of your relationships, it’s important to remember that a troubled history with your dad does not necessarily mean hope has left the building. While a woman’s relationship with her father can drastically influence her romantic life, there is no written law stating that every young girl with an absent father will wind up with nothing more than a hopeless and failed love life and indeed, not every daddy’s girl is guaranteed to suddenly stumble across Prince Charming and live happily ever after in the kingdom castle.

TAKING CONTROL

 

Every woman possesses control of her own romantic destiny if she is able to acknowledge and redirect detrimental behaviours and manifest positive progress with potential partners and significant others.

Fathers desperately want a closer, more meaningful relationship with their daughters, but they don't know how to achieve it. Daughters are too critical and judgmental towards their fathers – usually adopting the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy. These women risk growing to be unaware of what constitutes a healthy romantic relationship and not understanding how to properly relate to men. Fortunately, this damage is promisingly avoidable and repairable. Communication remains key.

Consistently re-enforcing the father-daughter relationship through communication will ultimately encourage strong self esteem and confidence and healthy standards for male companionship that do not involve relying on men for happiness, paving the way for successful and sustainable romantic relationships.