Gianni obviously requires the most attention and Paco, being younger than Tonka, relatively needs more.
I said to her that we should do something “together, just the two of us.”
So, we hatched (and completed) a plan for a “Father-Daughter Only” Tea Party with Tonka, 5 of her friends, and their dads.
We served macaroni and cheese with carrots for lunch.
Then we went around the table and each father said something he appreciated about his daughter and vice versa.
That was followed by a joint art project where the father drew a picture of himself and the daughter drew one of herself.
And we wrapped up with some cookies.
The next day, I was about to hang up the picture in the basement “art gallery,” and I paused to admire it. More cherish it than admire it, actually.
It was less the quality of the art work than what it represented (in fact, I hadn’t seen the addition of the stickers since they came after my design was done.)
In Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters (which I think was an underlying driver for this entire experiment), the author says that girls “just like to spend time with their fathers,” not even doing any particular activity.
I can’t speak for the other attendees, but I know that Tonka felt closer to me last night…she basically said as much, which was great.
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