How to Protect Your Daughter Physically, Mentally, and Emotionally with Warren Petersen
Warren Petersen is the author of Becoming a Significant Man and he’s also a husband and a father to four kids. This is an important show about pulling ourselves out of the mud after losing everything, and how to protect our daughter physically, mentally, and emotionally in the world we live in today.
Warren Petersen
After the painful loss of his home, business, income, life savings, and even his own identity as a man, Warren Peterson was determined to use his experience and calling to help others. He founded Significant Man, an organization focused on leading men towards becoming the husbands, fathers, and leaders they were created to be. He loves teaching and mentoring men, seeing the changes in their lives, and the positive results in their families.
Warren was your stereotypical entrepreneurial success story. He ran an information security business and opened offices in Chicago, London, and Singapore. He was flown all over the world and traveled in limos to speaking gigs. Most men would say he was living the dream, until the recession hit. Warren lost his business, his house, his self-respect–everything.
Warren became so depressed that he considered ending it all. He felt worthless and that the best he could do was leave his life insurance money for his family. Eventually, he realized his role in his own downfall and that he had been riding the wave instead of steering his life with intention. He decided to make a choice to have faith and to start making choices based on his passion and purpose. Warren got knocked down as far as a man can get knocked down, and now he uses part of his experience to help other men.
If you’re laying in the mud, ask yourself which way are you looking? You can look down into the darkness, or you can roll over and look at the sky.
Protecting Your Daughters
Warren Petersen has three daughters. The youngest is 9 years old and the oldest is in her twenties. All dads are tempted to lock up their daughters and guard the house with a shotgun, but Warren says they will be going out into the world. We shouldn’t be paranoid and afraid. We should be smart. He believes we must protect our daughters in 3 crucial ways. As fathers, we must protect them physically, protect their heart, and protect them from today’s culture.
1. Protect Your Daughter Physically
Protecting our daughters physically is the most natural instinct fathers have. It starts from the earliest years, like when we tell them not to touch the stove. As they grow older, we warn them not to walk home alone in the dark and to have situational awareness. When they get to driving age we have to protect them by telling them to wear their seatbelt and not to text and drive. Other things dads need to do to protect their daughters is to make sure they know that they can fight back. Most girls don’t know that it’s okay. Tell her that she must fight to protect herself and maybe even take a self-defense class with her.
2. Protect Your Daughter’s Heart
Protecting our little girl’s heart is more challenging. A hardened heart is dangerous. We have to watch for signs as she grows up. We need to pay attention to her friends, her hobbies, and the music she listens to. Where does she spend her time online? We must investigate. Rarely does a child have a personality change without some influence in her life. We have to be observant and keep digging until we find the toxic friendship or event.
Also, we can’t run away from conversations about sex. Most dads leave this up to the moms, but we as dads, have a unique, powerful voice in the life of our daughters. If we avoid these tough discussions, we reinforce the idea that these are topics she should be scared of. Dads have to talk about boys and sex–not as a lecture, but an open honest conversation.
3. Protect Your Daughter in Our Culture
Our world has changed drastically with the advent of the internet. This new world is highly sexualized. Many dads are surprised to know how sexual ideas are shaped by porn.
We need to face the fact that this is the world our daughters are growing up in now. The ideas of love, intimacy, the slow building of relationships–all these things are gone. Sex equals porn, where there is no romance or love story. Sex becomes disassociated with the relationships your daughter craves, but because it is so pervasive, girls think it’s the norm.
As awkward as it is, it’s up to us as dads to open the conversation. We have to teach the difference between love and sex. We must make sure our daughter understands respect, modesty, honor, and love. We must be the rock for her, not the judge.
Related Episode: How to Raise Strong, Confident, Resilient Girls with Bas Rutten
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Warren Petersen’s links
Amazon – Becoming a Significant Man
Website – significantman.com
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