Dads: As a "species", I think we've got a lot to answer for when we look and see young women who get into toxic and abusive relationships, and end up emotionally scarred, bruised ... and often, eventually, raising children as single mums.

I think we often tend to know what young guys hanging with our daughters are thinking, what they're after, how mature and supportive they are likely to be -- I've heard a number of older dads tell me, about their daughters' boyfriends/husbands/ex' es: "I knew he was a loser from the moment I set eyes on him!" When I ask them "did you tell her that?", the answer is generally no (at least not immediately) --  not suprisingly, because they've known instinctively that their daughters were 'too far gone' to listen to them. When they have said something, further down the track, it 's too late and too painful to be well received... It's only in the aftermath of a relationship that has self-destructed that they've been able to find the common ground with their wounded daughters, of both thinking the guy is an idiot!!

The fact is that our relationship with our daughters could well be one of the crucial, determining factors in how well they navigate relationships with the opposite sex (mostly because they learn from us what to think of themselves, how valuable/important/capable/intrinsically worthy of respect they really are, etc).

I really do think as the significant males in their lives as infants and pre-teens, that we should be intentional in having the convo's about choosing a mate, dating and getting to know someone, how to recognise the difference between a good bloke and a smooth-talking, self-centred, emotionally immature 'player', between a real man and a neanderthal, between a genuinely sensitive and caring fella and a jellyfish!! If we can talk, and point out examples, (and have a few good belly laughs about it!) together when they're little, they are SO much less likely to be "swept off their feet" by a clown in spurs masquerading as a prince!