Have my daughter back by...

[Medium Brumski]

I was chatting with my cousin over the weekend (who is a hard-core Marine) and he was telling me about how he "dissuades" young men that are interested in his little sisters, both who are of regular dating age, by honestly answering the door with his rifle strapped to his back. Now this is a bit of an extreme, but it made me realize I've never been worried by the typical father/brother/friend threats.

How do you guys feel, do you find this kind of behavior old-fashioned, ridiculous, or appropriate? Have you seen it work? Have any good stories?

The best one I've been apart of, I was driving during a double-date (in high-school), all 4 of us in my car, when we go to drop off my friend's girl, who knew she was past curfew but kept saying it was ok we could stay out. We get to her house and breathe a sigh of relief, her father isn't home yet, presumably he's still out drinking. Well I open my door (two-door car) to let the girl out of the backseat, and before I can close it this beat-up truck comes flying up the drive-way, blocks me in, and this big redneck jumps out and runs up to my door, holds it open while he yells at my friend. Nothing bad really happened, but for a second it was pretty sketchy. I don't remember if my buddy ever went on another date with that chick.

[campy]

My dad is one of those types of fathers. I remember him sitting on the balcony waiting for me to come home from a party once. Another time I was staying over at the BF house and my dad called at 6am, then at 6:45am, then was waiting for me at home so he could lace into me "I didn't bring you up to be a whore". The BF called my dad to gloss things over and my dad's reply was "I don't trust you, you have the "stalker" feel to me".

My Fiance and my dad have had some serious issues over the years as I moved in with him and moved on with my life.

I realize now that it was growing pains for my dad, he had a hard time seeing me as a mature adult, I didn't need him anymore. I can totally see how that would play on your emotions as you let go of your kids who relied 100% on you their entire lives...I dread the day my boy brings some heart breaker home...grrrr....I don't like her already and he's only 2 hahahahah

[marina]

I agree with Campy, a lot of that bad dad behavior has to do with watching a daughter grow up. A dad knows that there are a lot of troubles a daughter will encounter that he won't be able to save her from and he doesn't know how to deal with that.

My dad is a weird combo of marine and hippie. On the one hand, children are just little people, and they should be nurtured and taught as newcomers to this planet so that they can be well-adjusted adults who help heal the world rather than harm it. On the other, they should have respect for their elders (except the creepy ones) and conduct themselves with honor. And if they don't: white glove test on your room in 1 hour.

He usually never got to the white glove test with me since I was both totally on to his bark rather than bite strategy, and because he was my hero so I generally tried to appease him since he's usually such a chill guy. Also, as fat as he is, he still can do a lot of scary marine tricks that I don't really want to see in action.

So basically, my dad never did that shit, but the couple of times he tried it, I was confused and annoyed. I think both times we ended up having a talk and he calmed down.