what do you have to say on the topic of.........

[musclehead]

what did you do when your daughter started dating? of course this is a question for those that had daughters *ahem* John...

my wife and daughter conspired against me, as they usually did, and I didn't find out she had any 'boy friends' until the 4th one.  they were afraid of what I might do when I found out. I had clues though, suddenly we are eating ALOT of subway sandwiches. not the subway 1 mile from my house, the one 5-6 miles on the other side of town. I'm dumb, but not stupid. it goes along way with me if you look me in the eye and give me a firm handshake, only one boy did that and I liked him a lot. so therefore I didn't try to scare the crap outta him.. 

I didn't have to do a thing to intimidate those potential suitors, just stand there and smile and be pleasant.

my wife talked my daughter into doing ROTC, not my idea but I was all for it. first years don't do alot of competing they tend to do the grunt work, I suppose much like the military seniority counts. her second year when she started competing in drill team we started going to the comps and watching. one time she told me the young men asked 'is that your dad?' she said yes, they said 'ohh'.

I had a ball with that, my wife said 'you are enjoying this way to much' I said yep! didn't hurt that I dropped her off a few times on the motorcycle.

I got this idea on the radio (where else?) I heard one caller say her dad was a 6' 9" marine drill Sargent. one said her father wasn't big or intimidating but whenever a new young man came over he'd pull out a box labeled 'castration kit' 

[2K-Valk]

I raised two young ladies that both turned out pretty dang good, if I may say so myself.  All young men were required to come in to meet us and to pick them up, everytime.  None of this blowing the horn crap.  They ALL then heard my speach on the 3 D's. (no Drinking, no Drugs, no D!@ks!)  Seemed to work out ok and today we all laugh about it.

[da prez]

  I went thru it with two daughters. They had to bring the date in the house to meet us. They must have basic language skills. No  hey dude , pal , buddy, yo. I raised my three to say please and thankyou, no ( yes ) sir or mam. To this day I can not stand when I say thank you I get ; no problem. Just what do I need to do to cause a problem.  
   I think the scarriest thing is ,todays children are the doctors of tomorrow!
   I am on SSI and hope I will outlast my Doctor.
                                                                     da prez

[old2soon]

My oldest is a girl from my first marriage. When my lovely daughter brought home her first boyfriend i just happened to be home that weekend.(Over the road trucking) It was a saturday and i was in the garage working on my Yamaha Virago. Talked to him a little bit and excused myself and came back out with my sawed off 12 gauge. I kept it pointed down by my leg and told him-if she says no it's NO. If i have to repeat it you REALLY ain't gonna like how i tell you the second time. My daughter told me when she got back home(20 minutes early) that the young man had the $hit scared outa him-literally. She married another guy and i have a couple of lovely grand kids. She told me she is gonna do with hers the same i did with her. RIDE SAFE.

[musclehead]

My oldest is a girl from my first marriage. When my lovely daughter brought home her first boyfriend i just happened to be home that weekend.(Over the road trucking) It was a saturday and i was in the garage working on my Yamaha Virago. Talked to him a little bit and excused myself and came back out with my sawed off 12 gauge. I kept it pointed down by my leg and told him-if she says no it's NO. If i have to repeat it you REALLY ain't gonna like how i tell you the second time. My daughter told me when she got back home(20 minutes early) that the young man had the $hit scared outa him-literally. She married another guy and i have a couple of lovely grand kids. She told me she is gonna do with hers the same i did with her. RIDE SAFE.

I didn't know WHO was gonna bring out the shotgun, but I KNEW the shotgun was coming out 

[Paxton]

My 4 Sisters = My one Crazy Father!

I have no daughter(s). Early on, I told my sons to not bring home any girl above 2.0 GPA. I am tired of interacting with kids that know it all.

My former daughter in law is dumb and stupid, but she works hard and she's a good mother.

Now, my two granddaughters... that's a whole different story!

[R J]

We had 3 daughters.    Boyfriends really did not like to meet dad to well.  Especially if he was on the motor and they happened to be on a traffic stop, with their date.

She usually told them that was my dad, you want to stay on the good side of him.   Other than that no problems.

[Serk]

I've still got a few years before I've got to worry about that, but my preparations have already begun...

I plan on having these pictures printed out large, framing them, and hanging them prominently where any potential boyfriend would see them.. The message should be loud and clear...

[JimC]

I have three daughters the youngest is 32. When my oldest was in 8th grade I answered the phone and there was a boy on the line that asked for her, I calmly told him

"SHE IS NOT HERE, CALL BACK IN 4 YEARS"

She thought it was the end of her world at the time, but she survived.

Jim

[Alzacs]

(My wife and ) I raised three sons (24, 22, 20) and they had the sch!t scared out of them by me long before any gal's dad could (or had to) do it. 

My sons know chivalry, manners and proper english.  The middle son is married and my SECOND grand child is due any day now.  My wife has been complimented by other parents for the job she did with the boys. 

I have 5 fosters (2 girls and 3 boys) that all call her Mom and me Chief.  BOTH "daughters" brought home there 'friends' to meet us.  I am 5'8" (ish) and the now 'Son-n-law' is 6'5" and only one time did he know fear... my daughter simply explained I was never trained to STOP a problem... I was trained to KILL the problem.  (and I never let him believe anything different)

[solo1]

We had three sons but only one daughter. We seem to have raised all of them well.  The sons ride.

My daughter had three or four boyfriends.  I treated them all  about like what's mentioned here (no shotgun tho).

When the one who she married first came, (no horn blowing crap) he knocked on the door and I answered it.  Now Greg was, and is, 6' 4" tall, 320 pounds, and size 16 shoes.  He was visibly shaking, I don't know why, 

Anyway, my daughter's been married for over 28 years now and she's now 54 ( you didn't hear this from me).  The marriage is working fine for both of them.  One grandson but at 26 he doesn't ride.

Kids grow up quick, Time really flies. It doesn't seem like it's been 20 years since I retired.

[John Schmidt]

Yes Tom, four daughters is different as many will tell you. What I found amusing was the competition between them. My #3 was a pretty blonde and the guys just gravitated toward her, even when at our house. The girls really kept tabs on each other when it came to boys, which made our parental oversight easier. Plus, our girls were brought up in the church and much of their socializing was with fellow members. And, they were active in the local Youth For Christ organization. We didn't restrict them to the point of no contact outside of that environment, that would have made for some unprepared young ladies. As it turned out, they made the choices of who they would spend time with and it was pretty much equally spread amongst all venues.

The guys used to refer to our house as Stalag 13, due to all the lights outside, not any restrictions we put in place. We lived in the middle of a narrow block, the houses on either side were corner lots and there was a streetlight on each corner. Plus, we had a light over the back door in the carport, a light on the ceiling of the carport, a light on the front of the carport. Also a light over the front door, and a yard light on a large pine tree out front. They were there when we moved in and I never removed them, but you couldn't stand in front of the house and blink without being seen. As for those restrictions, we had very few; weekdays the curfew was 9:00pm during school time, 11:00 weekends. During summer we relaxed the hours a bit but reminded them a phone call is necessary if things get too late. For the most part they all did what we asked, though none were perfect and I never expected it.

As for the guys, I usually didn't have any trouble with them, the girls were pretty choosey. As others have said, you come to the door...no horn honking. And, as I said before, the girls watched out for each other and if there was any dirt on a prospective date, they shared it. The girls sometimes got upset with me because their date would see the car or bike I was working on and get interested in what I was doing, leaving that pretty young thing standing there impatiently waiting. They all knew I was pretty strict, tough, but fair....word gets around, even in a town this size. My #2 gal always seemed to be late getting ready, so one guy told her if she wasn't ready when he pulled in, he was going to take her mother to the movie they had planned on seeing. When he arrived, sure enough....she was still half dressed, so he turned to my wife and said are you game? She grabbed her purse and off they went, I laughed until I had tears. My daughter came out, saw what just happened and started to raise a stink which I put down quickly. She was never late again!  That same daughter had the habit of grabbing her clothes out of the dryer, tossing them on the couch and taking only what she needed and leaving the rest. So one night after she left, I took all her frilly "stuff", entertwined the bra straps through all her panties and strung them from one drapery rod to the other all across the living room. When they returned I asked the young man to come in for a while since it was early. When they did, she was mortified and he was laughing until he couldn't talk. From then on, she put the clothes away.

Those young ladies are now mothers and two are grandmothers, having given me 17 grandchildren, who in turn have given me 7 great-grandchildren. As many of you know, that pretty blonde gal(#3), succumbed to cancer over five years ago(would have turned 50 this summer). But, she left a beautiful legacy of two lovely daughters and a son...all now full grown themselves.

So, was it difficult raising four girls? Absolutely.
Given a chance, would I do it again? Absolutely.
I could write a book!

[John Schmidt]

Hopefully our rainy afternoons will start letting up as the season cools down the onshore breezes. There's a good breakfast place north of Eustis(The Mason Jar), and a great burger place in Alachua. If we go up there, we'll probably get some others to join us. It's kind of a favorite spot.

[Willow]

My four girls are all long grown and gone now.  the youngest is twenty-seven.  I didn't do a very good job of raising them and contrary to my statements at a younger age, I'd love a chance to go back and do it over.

Their boyfriends were all a little nervous around me.  I didn't do anything all that special.  I insisted on meeting and having conversation with them and I spoke very frankly with them.

My daughters married men they met and were courted by after they left home.  They've done well.  

I could use a little time in the wind.

[Pluggy]

a great burger place in Alachua.

You mean The Conestoga?  Huge food.  Did you ever dine at the Backwoods Smokehouse?  It is North of Ocala National Forest and South of Interlachen.

[John Schmidt]

a great burger place in Alachua.

You mean The Conestoga?  Huge food.  Did you ever dine at the Backwoods Smokehouse?  It is North of Ocala National Forest and South of Interlachen.

Yes, The Conestoga, been there a few times, ate toooo much each time. The Backwoods Smokehouse?? Is that the one on the corner where 310 deadends on 315? Out in the middle of nowhere, yes...been there a couple times. Going north on 19 you go over a high bridge and just as you come down the other side you have to make a sharp left onto 310. I prefer The Conestoga though.

[John Schmidt]

My daughters married men they met and were courted by after they left home.  They've done well. 

Same with my gals, my "baby" is 43, the oldest 53. What was neat with the guys they married, when their decision to get married became final, they all came to me and asked for my daughter's hand. The only one I had a problem with was my #2 gals first husband who was later killed in a car accident. Still, he respected me enough to come to me in person and ask. I didn't give my blessing to the union and told both of them why, but they went ahead with it anyway. Some years later when she remarried following his death, that young man also came to me, I couldn't have been happier with her choice the second time around.

[YoungPUP]

When one of my friend's daughters started dating he had a bunch of us ( about 6-10 ) stop by one the bikes. When I saw the boys car pull in I came around the corner on my bike, pulled in got rope and duct tape out of my saddle bag, said I got the things he had asked for. then pointed to the boy and said " that him?" The kid ran to his car, left and never called again.  Guess he wasn't a keeper....

[sugerbear]

i was very nice to the young lad. just sat in my chair, talked and "sharpened" my broadheads.

boy's  dad (he was 15) laughed so hard i thought he was gonna have a heart attack.

dad said he was taking notes because he had 6 girls

his dad said the boy spend 3 hrs cleaning up the SAAB.

[Jeff K]

Kelli's boyfriends had to come to the house, no honking in the driveway allowed. I met the boys at the door and said... "Son, do you have a gun" "No, sir, I don't" ... "Well, Son, Keep in mind... I do".

[Alzacs]

I remember being told... "if you ever raise your hand, it had better be to adjust your hair."  I heard that man LOUD AND CLEAR.  Eventually he bacame my father-n-law...

[sidecarrick]

 I used to tell my daughter's boyfriends "Look at me while I tell you this, cause we won't be having this conversation again. She means the world to me, you- not so much. If you make her cry, I'll make you cry.
Believe that!" Seemed to work well. 

[rodeo1]

the soulution is really very simple, DON"T POTTY TRAIN THEM !  when some guy sticks his hand into her dirty diaper, he will bring her home immediatly.