Talk with Her: A Dad's Essential Guide to Raising Healthy, Confident, and Capable Daughters

by Kimberly Wolf

Overview

A comprehensive guide to help dads support their daughters through the preteen and teen years up to adulthood

“Communication” with your daughter doesn’t mean having “big” conversations all the time. Creating even the smallest moments of father-daughter connection can build bonds. In Talk with Her, you’ll find information on nineteen topics defining your daughter’s life—including body positivity, romantic relationships, social media, mental health, and academic achievement—along with the communication strategies you’ll need to address them with care and confidence.

With cutting-edge research, expert perspectives, and talking points, Kimberly Wolf brings broad-ranging and often overwhelming topics into focus to help you make a positive, lifelong impact on your daughter one conversation at a time.

“Kimberly Wolf provides a vital map for fathers in navigating the most important—and often the most challenging and turbulent—aspects of father-daughter relationships. This is an engaging, insightful, thoughtful, and wonderfully useful book.” —Dr. Richard Weissbourd, Senior Lecturer and Faculty Director of Making Caring Common, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143135272
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/31/2022
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Kimberly Wolf, M.Ed., is an educator, speaker, and educational consultant with an undergraduate degree in gender studies from Brown University and a master’s degree in human development and psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her experiences growing up in Los Angeles and attending an all-girls school sparked her passion for equipping girls with the wisdom and skills they need to succeed in all areas of life during the school years and beyond. Fifteen years into her career, through conversations with friends, colleagues, and collaborators who were fathers of daughters, Wolf realized she was in a unique position to demystify girlhood for dads, helping them communicate better with their daughters, maximize their parental impact, and inspire young women to reach their potential. In addition to being an expert in her field, she is also a daughter with a deep personal belief in the transformative power of strong father-daughter relationships. Talk with Her is her first book.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Girls' Empowerment

Movement Needs Its Dads vii

1 You Are Important, Even When You Feel Irrelevant

The Essential Role You Play in Her Life 1

2 "The Talk" Is Dead

Thirty Ways to Level Up Your Father-Daughter Communication 15

3 Maximizing Your Impact

Information and Inspiration for Key Conversations 33

Boost Her Weil-Being 35

Body Positivity, Clothing Choices, Gender and Sexual Identity, Mental Health, Substance Use, Technology and Social Media, Grief and Tragedy

Strengthen Her Relationships 123

Friendship, Negative Peer Influence, Drama and Bullying, Love, Sexual Health, Breakups, Sexual Misconduct

Broaden Her Horizons 214

Academic Achievement, College Admissions, Career, Financial Literacy, Global Citizenship

4 Building Your Support Team

Who and How to Call for Help 263

5 FAQs

Fathers Asking Questions 279

6 You've Got This

You and Your Daughter in the Long Game 291

Acknowledgments 295

Appendix: She's Talking Behind Your Back: Affirmations and Advice in Girls' Own Words 299

Notes 303

Reading and Resources 326

Index 328

Editorial Reviews

“Eminently helpful debut...This is essential reading for dads looking to help their daughters successfully navigate some turbulent years.” 
—Publishers Weekly

“In a reassuring tone, she reminds us that 'it may seem like she’s not listening to you, but she can hear you, and that’s what matters most.' Wolf includes sensitive topics that dads (and all parents) may be nervous about approaching, including sexual orientation, gender identity, transforming bodies, and social media influence. Talk with Her is an important addition to parenting collections.” 
—Booklist

“Talk With Her is a must read if we want to understand the power of connection between men and their daughters. Building deeper family bonds, especially among fathers and daughters, is an important pathway to a new era of gender equity and human connection.”
—Eve Rodsky, New York Times bestselling author of Fair Play and National Bestseller, Find Your Unicorn Space

“Kimberly Wolf provides a vital map for fathers in navigating the most important—and often the most challenging and turbulent—aspects of father-daughter relationships. This is an engaging, insightful, thoughtful, and wonderfully useful book.”
—Dr. Richard Weissbourd, senior lecturer and faculty director of Making Caring Common, Harvard Graduate School of Education

From the Publisher