It's all them bro. I am proud. I just donated the sperm. Hell I respond to taco posts all day. How smart does that make me?

4.3 good for him thats great. Must of got it from you

Anyone who responds to a taco post is a genius.

Wrong Rman, the true genius lies in the creation. Not the respondent.

Einstein liked tocos

Rman, I can tell you how to truly F up their lives.... They are 4 and 6 now, treat them like they are the apples of your eye, Daddies little girls, best thing to ever happen to you... then when they start developing feminine forms and turning into little women, absolutely IGNORE them. In fact if they try to voice an opinion about anything, tell them they are wrong!

This will guarantee they will look to all the wrong men for the love and affection they once got from Daddy that got yanked away from them.

Hmmmm, how do I know this? I think you can figure that one out. Those scars are 29 years old and still fresh as if it were yesterday.

my marriage is somehow following in the footsteps of my parents. without realizing it i married "my dad" (not a good thing obviously). keep your actions and reactions in check, be a good man, which im sure you are, and lead by example. Everything will fall into place. Right now they are lil ones so you can do no wrong in their eyes. love them and make them feel you will always be there.

Oh and when they become teenagers- make sure there is 2 bathrooms in the house!!!

#1 Never let them hear you put down their Mama!

Show them that one can have dignity and grace no matter how bad someone has hurt us.

My friend L's wife was a drug addict. He finally left her and decided to take the 3 daughters with him. They yelled at him and said they hated him for taking them from their mother (kids don't see the self-destruction they love their parents no matter what).

But he hung in there, he didn't know how to dress them, how to comb their hair. But he hung in there. Every day he said - I may not know what I'm doing, but I'm trying because I love you.

I told him to do the things he did know how to do: fix cars, work on the house, kick ass. His three daughters are Mom's now, and can fix their own cars, remodel their own homes and have kicked many an ass (unfortunately two were attacked when they were teens, one clown even wanted to press charges against the girl!!).

Their Mom died 3 years ago on Thanksgiving, driving stoned out of her mind on the wrong side of the road. All the girls could say to him was, if you hadn't saved us Dad - we would have been in the car with her.

You're doing fine Rbaby - they know you love them.

@Rman - read this book. I did and there is a LOT of good info in there, and even parts of it tailored specifically to the father who has been hurt and divorced. It is by Meg Meeker. I got a lot out of it.

http://www.amazon.com/Strong-Fathers-Daughters-Secrets-Father/dp/1596980125

Put them in a convent.

DWH do you see the irony in someone named Meeker writing a book about strength?

Rman, the fact that you even care enough to ask and try sets you WORLDS beyond a lot of fathers.

My parents are divorced but my dad always made sure he was part of my life. School, boyfriends, friends...everything.

Let your girls know you're proud of them. Encourage them, be the one they can talk to. Let them know they are worth EVERYTHING. That they deserve the best in life.

Just BEING there means the world.
I don't know you that well, but I totally dig and respect the fact that you care about your girls like that. Rock on.

I just want to thank everyone for responding to my thread. I usually think that people here won't take me seriously. I'm going to keep coming back to this thread when I question my parenting. I might also make a trip to the bookstore to read up on parenting. I've never been much into self-help books, but I might just give this one a try...thanks DWH for the book recommendation and thanks again to everyone. This has helped me.

I think date nights are a wonderful idea.

I tried so hard to get my ex to give our daughter flowers on Valantines Day. He declined. Oh well.

But if you give your daughter the attention all teenagers seek, she won't have to go looking for it from strangers. (And teenage boys tend to BE strangers...LOL.)

People, both men AND woman, settle for less, when they don't feel like they're worth much. Those kids also give up too soon on themselves. It's great to get a 4.3 GPA like TD's kid, but most kids won't get that. But it's the kid (boy or girl) that keeps working at it, that will get whatever, WHATEVER degree they want in time.

Not all of us can be star basketball players, but all of us could be doctors, nurses, engineers, whatever. Some will just have to work harder longer for it.

But it was the turtle that won the race, not the hare.

(I tell this constantly to my kids who read several grade levels above their ages. Don't get complacent, it's where you stop that counts, not how fast you got there.)