Wednesday, May 27, 2009

She Still Calls Me Daddy – Book Review

As the father of an adult married daughter I was eager to read this follow-up by Wolgemuth of his earlier book – She Calls Me Daddy. With my daughter I did some of the pre-marital counseling, gave her away, and conducted the ceremony! It's often difficult for Dad's to give their 'princess' away to a young man who is practically a stranger! The potential exists for there to be tension, conflict, and misunderstanding. I greatly appreciated Wolgemuth's willingness to tackle these potential relational landmines between dad's and their married daughters and son-in-laws with clarity and humor. Chapter 6 "Discipline: The Hard Work of Letting Go" was especially helpful to me. It caused me to examine whether or not the gifts we give them come with strings attached. Most Dads will see themselves on these pages. You might wipe away a tear or two. You will definitely laugh – especially as the author describes Christmas in his childhood home!

I plan to have all of my "Dad's with daughters" colleagues read this book as their daughters draw ever closer to marriage. I no sooner finished the last page when my wife began to read the book for herself. She suggested that it might be good for our son-in-law to read it, too, so that he might gain some insight into the father-daughter relationship.

(I am a member of Thomas Nelson’s Book Review Blogger program: http://brb.thomasnelson.com/)