FATHERS AND DAUGHTERS, MOTHERS AND SONS
What We Learn
Shelley Stokes, PhD and Sherron Lewis, LMFT
The bond between fathers and daughters and the bond between mothers and sons are quite special and reciprocally deep in their impact throughout our lives, especially when it comes to self-esteem, relational health, decision-making and our sense of self and of life’s meaning. The father serves as a positive model of the masculine for his daughter and also serves as a safe and playful interactive regulator of fear and aggression. The mother serves as a model of the feminine for her son and, also, provides a core foundational structure for the development of his internal sense of a secure self. Also, from infancy through adulthood, daughters help their dads to more empathically understand women, sons help their moms to more empathically understand men, and, reciprocally all learn to better understand themselves.
