My Daughter's First Date

Every little girl's father dreads the day, but it's bound to happen...her first date. For my daughter, it came sooner than usual.

The guy called her up, talked to her mom, and made sure it would be ok to take our Abby out on a date. I know the guy, which made it better, even though he was quite a bit older. I know him as well as I know myself, actually. He's me. Tonight, I took my 3 year old daughter Abby out on our first Daddy-Daughter date!

It's an idea that I think I heard of first working at Familylife - Dennis Rainey does this type of thing with his daughters, and I thought it was a great idea. After all, I probably spend a disproportional amount of time with my son...you know, first born...he's a boy, I'm a dad...male bonding....deer hunting, etc. So, Abby is certainly due some time out with dad. (I have a 1 yr old daughter and a daughter currently in the womb, due May 11, who will also be dividing my date nights in a few years, if the Lord wills!)

It was a sweet night...nothing too terribly noteworthy to blog about. When I "asked Abby out on a date" over the phone, she excitedly said "yeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!". I then asked, "Do you know what a "date" is?". She calmly said, "no." My dear wife tried to explain & prepare her as the afternoon progressed. After trying to ask her what she'd like to do on our date & where she'd like to eat, she basically said "I'm not hungry, I just want to go to the toy store." (just like a woman!) :o)

We went to Abby's favorite restaurant...not Red Lobster...not Outback...but...Wendy's. After a cheese burger with mayo only, we went to the Purple Cow and drank a purple milkshake. It was fun...we sat at the soda counter and shared a shake sipping from two straws. We giggled alot. Afterwards, we walked over to Lifeway Christian Books and she looked at the Veggie Tale stuff...then we went to Toys-R-Us to try to find "Mommy & Poppy" (sp?) figures for her Dora the Explorer house. She didn't seem too sad when we couldn't find them. She was probably still elated that she was getting to spend the evening with her favorite guy (tic). She did, however, repeatedly through the night say, "I like going out on a date!" Sweet girl.

And that's about it. I don't even know if she'll remember much about it tomorrow. But, Lord willing, I hope to begin a tradition with all my daughters of periodically taking them each out on a date with daddy and showing them how a man is to treat a lady. My end goal...well, I'd really like to set the bar so high that they become convinced that they'll never find a guy as good as their dad, so they'll commit to a life of singleness and service to the Lord. Seeing as how that probably won't happen (I might still pray towards that end, though, and make them fill out this application), I can only hope to model some standard of godliness and gentlemanly (it's a real word, look it up) conduct for which my daughters will use in choosing a mate.