If you establish a solid and strong relationship while she is young, you will be able to talk about boys, sex, drugs, and everything in between so much easier and she will be stronger for it. Here I am going to talk about some ways you can start habits for talking with your daughters, spending more time with your daughters, and fun things you can do to strengthen these bonds for the long run. (By the way, dad’s can do variations of these bonding tasks as well!)

Get your nails done.
If you like to have your nails done at the salon, take your daughter with you.  Even if you only do this once every three or six months, you are creating memories and bonding with your daughter. Building relationships is about creating memories and having fun together. If you are on a budget, do your nails at home. Doing each others nails is fun and you will be forced to talk with each other while doing it.

Get your hair done
Are you running to the hairdressers often to get your hair done? Take your daughter with you. Have her hair done. Let her feel a little more grown up and spend time with each other. Are you on a budget? Do your hair at home. Braid each other’s hair, highlight each other’s hair, or dye each other’s hair. If you are really adventurous, you can even perm each others hair while you are at home. You can ‘look’ silly together while you are working on each others hair do’s.

Go shopping
Going grocery shopping for the house, learning about money and allowing your daughter to have some input into what she eats daily is going to help your relationship. She will learn more about how much work goes into running a house, how you make decisions, and what money is spent on groceries. Take her with you once a month or once a week – you will find that you do have ‘stuff’ in common which will strengthen your bond!

Get out shopping!
Have you ever been shopping for clothes, shoes, or hair accessories only to bring them home and your daughter won’t wear them? Take her with you and let her have a choice in what she wears. Of course you are going to have to set some type of limitations but the more choices you give your daughter and she learns more about the budget, the better the two of you are going to ‘get along’ on issues such as this. You won’t have to fight her as much about what she wears and she will learn to take care of her ‘things’ more often because she realizes how much her clothes and things cost.

Be a Chaperone
If you want to learn about your daughter, be a chaperone at her sleepovers, at the musical forms or genres." target=_blank>dances, in school or what ever she is involved in. Don’t try and control everything that she does while you are there but observe and learn more about her behavior while you are there. After you have chaperoned, you can talk about ‘Who was xxx?’ and ‘Wow, when did girls start wearing xxxx?’ ‘Do you like to do that often?’ and stuff like that. Don’t make it an argument, but more like you are impressed with how she handles herself and her choice of friends. You will bond together as you learn more about her and her friends.

In the Home

• Have your daughter spend time picking out the movies that you will watch for the night.
• Let her make supper.
• Let her make cookies.
• Teach her how to make that special cake.
• Allow her to paint her own room.

There are so many things that you can do, that you can involve your daughter with in your life that will strengthen your bond together. Just use your imagination, make it a habit, and always try to hold your tongue even if she doesn’t do everything that you might like or want her to do. Remember you were a kid once yourself, and often the best way to learn about problems and choices in life is to actually experience them yourself!