Rules for My Daughter E-Book

Walker Lamond

• Herausgeber: Atlantic Books
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Rules For My Daughter is a collection of traditional, humorous, and urbane fatherly advice for young women and girls. From internet dating ("Never trust a profile pic") to the practical ("The right friends will appreciate a well timed burp. Your grandmother will not.") to aiming high ("There's more to life than Being a passenger." Amelia Earhart), this endearing book of rules and quotations is the quintessential instruction manual for becoming a confident and industrious young woman. Hip and witty with a decidedly traditionalist flavour, Rules For My Daughter is meant to evoke simpler times when father knew best and a suitable answer to "Why?" was "Because I said so." Based on the hit blog and presented as a beautifully designed hardback, there is no better gift to celebrate the special relationship between father and daughter.

Leseprobe

Let’s get some things straightbefore I get old and uncool.

for

FRANCES

Contents

Introduction

Rules for My Daughter

Essential Reading for Girls

Required Listening

Acknowledgments

Photo Credits

Introduction

But what if it’s a girl?

That’s the question I was asked most frequently after I published my first book, Rules for My Son, which I described so self-assuredly as ‘one man’s instructions for raising a thoughtful, adventurous, honest, hardworking, self-reliant, well-dressed, well-read, well-mannered young gentleman’. Many readers, my wife included, wanted to know whether my unsolicited advice could be applied to girls as well as boys.

My answer, of course, was … of course! While the book, and the blog from which it sprung, was imagined as a decidedly one-sided conversation between father and son, I was confident that just about every rule could be applied to a future daughter as well as my then-unborn son. After all, writing thank-you notes, keeping a tidy lawn, and learning how to shake a martini are universal lessons and hardly the exclusive realm of men. But then again, there were all those rules about dating girls. And tying a necktie. And a few dozen other rules that were admittedly pretty male-centric, if not explicitly, then at least in tone. My wife thought that our future daughter deserved her own rules. Maybe even a whole book of them. I agreed.

Boys and girls are equally capable and equally thirsty for all the institutional knowledge that a parent can muster. But they are also different. Wonderfully, obviously, and sometimes hilariously different. And never was this more obvious than when shortly after I finished Rules for My Son my wife and I had our second child – a girl.

So I decided to write a book for her too. But I did have a nagging concern. In this day and age, was it appropriate for a man to be doling out advice to a young woman? What did I know about the unique challenges of being a girl? And if I wanted my daughter to grow into a strong, independent, brave young woman who was unafraid to challenge traditional power structures and antiquated gender stereotypes, was handing her a book full of rules written by a man the best way to start her journey?

The answer is … I don’t know. I am no parenting expert. I’m just a dad. And I think a dad has a right and a duty to tell his daughter what he expects of her. To share with her what he knows about life and how to make the best of it. And while I might not know even a fraction of what it takes to become an independent, intelligent, courteous, courageous, honest, adventurous, self- reliant, well-read, well-dressed, well-mannered young woman, I do know someone who does. Thankfully, I married her.

WHEN IN DOUBT,WEAR A DRESS.