I have been looking for an article like this for …

Comment on So you grew up with a dad who didn’t know how to express love? Here’s how it could be affecting you today by Mary.

I have been looking for an article like this for quite some time. This validates what I have been saying for years. It validates the advice I have given my sons, who have young daughters. I told them to tell their little girls, every single day, that they love them, they are beautiful, intelligent, funny, and loveable. I told them to let their daughters be angry with them, to let them rant and rave at them, then sit down with them and talk about how to manage their anger in a more constructive way. I explained to them that one day they will grow up and fall in love with someone who treats them like their father did…who cared for them like their father did. I told them that as fathers, they set the standard for who their daughters fall in love with.
The reason I talked to them about this is due to my life…the abuse- emotional and physical, I suffered at the hands of my father. Then I fell in love with someone who treated me as my father did (which I thought, unconsciously, was normal). It is all emotional abuse, which can hurt more than physical abuse and cause more harm.
I hope they listened. I watch them closely as they relate to their daughters and pray they are heeding my advice. So far so good.
Thank you for this article.