My husband is a protective father. Who worries and hurts, who feels deeply for his children. This is why he was so scared silly to have a daughter.

One day our little princess came and now he feels so vulnerable. He is wearing his heart on his sleeve, he feels he has a little albeit precious part of his heart growing up outside his body (wearing hairclips and dancing all over the house). And he is scared for his precious little princess.

“I’m scared for her because I don’t want to see her get hurt, I don’t want to see her cry,” he once opened up while driving.

“What if a guy breaks her heart, I don’t want to see her heart get broken,” he explained. “What if her husband cheats on her? I’ll break his face I swear I will” he once said with so much love and fear and worry in his voice.

I know so many of you fathers worry just like my husband. You dread the day you will see your daughter cry.

You worry about her getting hurt, about some guy breaking her heart, and a world so cruel crushing her and leaving her devastated.

But you see, girls are a lot stronger than you think. Girls are a lot tougher than most people give them credit for. They don’t stay as fragile and helpless forever.

And you know what? You can raise her to be strong, to be fearless, to have so much self-respect and self-love that she will never let a man walk all over her. She will never let anyone treat her bad.

You have the power to raise your baby girl to be wise, to know her worth and to understand as much as she can about the world. Sure the world is scary and tough but you can raise her to be tougher. So tough that you will have to worry more about your future son in law.

You will pray that your future son in law will have enough balls to stick around. You’ll pray that he’ll have enough energy, wisdom, patience, and understanding to keep up with your vibrant (at times fiesty) daughter.

You will pray for a son in law who will love her for her strong will, who will admire the way she speaks her mind, who respects her opinions, who will support her ambitions, and will treat her as his equal.

Sure she will cry, your sons will cry too at some point in their lives. And little girls are going to experience this many times, so be ready. Accept that this is part of what will build her character. Don’t be afraid to see her cry, but teach her to get up, move on and get going after crying.

You can raise her to be so tough, that when she becomes a woman you won’t have to worry about her getting hurt. You don’t have to think about a man hurting her or making her cry.

Because you’ve raised her well, you’ll know that if a man treats her bad she will get even or get up and leave, sue his butt, send him to jail, move on and be with another man who will treat her better. You’ll know that there’s really no reason for you to worry so much about her because you’ve raised a strong woman who who didn’t stay a helpless little girl forever.