My daughter has been fiercely independent minded from an early age. During her teenage years she was never going to get married, but times change people. Still I was surprised when she told me over a year ago about their plans for this wedding. I wasn’t surprised when she informed me she was doing away with most of the gratuitous traditions such as the flower and garter tosses, among other silliness. I was pleased and honored when she asked me to walk her down the aisle.
We both found easy agreement that the Father Daughter dance was out - too odd and awkward. Besides her being an adult for over a decade and her first dance belonging to her husband, there was the little matter of the tradition being a hangover from a mentality where wives and daughters were perceived as the patriarch’s chattel - something both of us reject.
Furthermore, seems to me, the real father daughter dances happen when our girls are still toddlers and young children when we actually are their protectors and guides to discovering the world and themselves. So while the happy couple was cutting the rug, the old man was all misty and reminiscing long ago dances and “our” song.
