It must be utterly terrifying to be a parent, knowing that anything you say or do (no matter how seemingly trivial at the time) has the potential to mess up your kid enough that they bring it up in therapy some day as an adult. Dads raising daughters opens up a whole other can of worms of potential parenting fails. In my own personal experience, I always felt like my dad had trouble relating to me and my sister when we were little. He often did stereotypical ‘boy’ things with us, not because he was making some sort of statement about treating girls and boys the same, but because he had no idea what a little girl would even be into. Luckily for him, we loved outdoor activities, LEGO, action figures, video games, sporting events, and even enjoyed the times he made us go to the golf driving range with him. But when it came to our experiences and emotions that were nuanced by girlhood, my dad didn’t really even try to understand—he left that stuff up to my mom. I don’t blame him at all, but I wonder sometimes if it was a mistake on his part—maybe he could have learned something about girls.  

A curious dad recently hopped on to r/askreddit to get some insight straight from the daughters of Reddit. Keep scrolling for the best responses.