It is probably natural that little boys have a greater connection with their mother and little girls with their father. I actually shouldn’t say little as my father was always a very special influence in my life. Before I was 20 I already thought that I wasn’t going to bother getting married unless I found somebody like him. Our relationship wasn’t all roses and flowers, rose e fiori, like we say in Italy. There actually were times of deep disagreements and grudges, but he ultimately was the person I was trying to make proud of me, not an easy task!

There have been many fun and some awkward episodes concerning the two of us. The first time I had somewhat of a serious boyfriend I put a framed picture of him in my room. I soon noticed that my father didn’t look pleased when looking at that picture and brilliantly resolved to put a larger picture of my father next to the one of my boyfriend. (Daughter/Father Diplomacy Course #001)

One time, when I was around 20, my mom and younger siblings had moved to the country side for the summer while I had stayed in Florence with my dad because of my summer job. My dad and I often went out to dinner those nights. While at one of the restaurants a couple of gentlemen that knew my dad but didn’t know who I was entered and, although they passed right by our table, pretended not to see us. “Who is the young woman with him?”, they surely thought. Boy, gossipy Florence was sure to wake up to yet another juicy story! Too bad my mom knew all too well who the young woman was, and with much laughter, that became another fun morsel of our family folklore.

The girl/father special relationship was again obvious to see when it came to our first baby girl and her dad. The little creature was weeks old when she was claiming her father as her own, period! When their dad was coming home from work her older brother, a toddler, would gambol towards the door and throw himself to embrace his legs to greet him; his baby sister would start reclaiming her father’s attention, not stopping her shrilly remonstrances until he took her into his arms.

To these days she is the one who knows how to wrap her often stern dad around her finger, managing to achieve more of what is on her mind than the rest of us put together. Never underestimate a girl’s influence on her father! And vice versa!