We’ve seen the movies and read the books.
You know, the ones where the overprotective father suddenly realises his little girls are growing up and want to start dating.
The ones where a pimply, nervous teenage boy rings the doorbell of his date’s home, only to be greeted by an angry, overbearing father asking them about their intentions.
And possibly holding a shotgun.
It's a tale that is as old and tired as teaching young girls that the only way to true and lasting happiness is to find their 'Prince Charming', and we're getting pretty sick of it.
Thankfully, writer J. Warren Welch - a man busy raising five daughters - is sick of it too. That's why he shared is own set of 'rules' for the future dates of his girls.
Welch's first rule for dating his daughters? "You'll have to ask them what their rules are."
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"I'm not raising my little girls to be the kind of women who need their daddy to act like a creepy, possessive badass in order for them to be treated with respect," he wrote on Facebook and Instagram.
"You will respect them, and if you don't, I promise they won't need my help putting you back in your place. Good luck pumpkin."
The father of five - two 16-year-old daughters, a 13-year-old, a 12-year-old and a 7-year-old - seems to have struck a cord with his wise words, which have since been shared more than 23,000 times online.
Speaking to TODAY, Welch said he can completely understand the urge some father's wanting to protect their daughters. But he wanted to make a point.
"The kind of posturing by fathers of daughters I was specifically responding to had nothing to do with that 'protective instinct' and everything to do with asserting their dominance over women and reinforcing a belief that women need men to take care of them," he said.
"I was a feminist long before I had daughters, but it wasn't until I was blessed with the task of raising young women that I realised why," he said.
"These girls are amazing humans, and I can take no credit for that other than the fact that I at least knew that the best thing I could do for them is not try to 'mold' them."
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Top Comments
Girls just need to know they are strong, self reliant and as capable of taking care of themselves as their grandmothers and great grandmothers we're, and to run a mile from feminists who only want to paint them as victims.
Similar rule to mine, although I did tell them to steer clear of mummy's boys
Why would you do that?
They are more self reliant
Why are Daddy's girls a winner?
Maybe I have a different definition of Daddy's girl, I thought it to mean a girl who relies on her father to baby and spoil her. Marrying that would be hideous. Maybe I've had this wrong the whole time!