Meeting your girlfriend's father for the first time can be terrifying. Especially when you know they already hate you before you've even shook their hand! These 12 guys share just how they finally won over their girlfriends' dads and we're kinda swooning a bit.
The Quick Turn Around
“My wife died whilst giving birth to our daughter, so naturally my daughter and I are very close. From a young age she would spend her spare time volunteering to help children who were ill or dying, and as she is a musician, she would also teach the children at the hospital I work at how to play the piano and guitar. Along with her kindness, she is the most beautiful young woman I have ever laid my eyes on. She has the sweetest smile and her mother’s big blue eyes. When she brought home this scruffy looking guy who hadn’t done well in school, who was unemployed and trying to make his band successful, I didn’t like him at all. I’m very sorry if I offend anybody but I just couldn’t understand the attraction she had to him and hoped it would fade into nothing. She could do better.
About a year into their relationship, my daughter discovered that she was pregnant. My heart sunk, not because I didn’t want a grand-child, but because I knew she hadn’t planned it and I knew she was too kind to ever consider an alternative to keeping it.
Her boyfriend approached me one evening shortly after the pregnancy was announced and asked if we could talk. I accepted the offer and we sat down. He confessed that he was scared to have a child but how he had already started saving money and how he’d started looking for a job. He explained how he knew that he wasn’t good enough for my daughter but that he loved her with all of his heart and wanted to support her in her choice – even if that meant throwing away his music dreams.
I will admit, we ended up getting along well. This boy I had first judged was actually a very nice, warm gentleman who simply wanted the best for my daughter and their future child. That was good enough for me, so I invited him to live with us and got him a job working at the same hospital I work for. Today, I have two grand-children and my daughter and future son-in-law are getting hitched next weekend.” Source
The Goofball
“My father in law and I get a long great and he has told me many times the reason why he liked me when he met me. I was 17 when I went to pick up his daughter to go to a concert as friends. I was all excited to see Greenday and Blink 182 (this was 2000 roughly). I ran up his front lawn, did a front flip and shook his hand and introduced myself. He said despite being a clown, I made it a point to show respect and shake his hand. Turned to his wife and said he could tell I was going to be around a long time. Been together ever since.” Source
How Cute!
“My youngest son has a type of congenital myopathy that makes him very weak. While he can walk, he can’t run or jump and falls down alot. Needless to say he finds this very humiliating (he is 16). We were at a restaurant and my son was standing next to me with untied shoelaces. Unfortunately he tripped and, due to his weakness, could not catch himself, crashing heavily to the ground in the middle of a crowded restaurant. My daughter’s boyfriend, without missing a beat, immediately lied down next to him on the floor and asked him ‘how is it going down here’ and otherwise made some small talk to ease some of my son’s embarrassment. He has always treated my son like his little brother but that selfless act was unforgettable. Needless to say I have loved him like a son ever since.” Source
Cars Over Everything
“I’d say my girlfriend’s father likes me. The first time I met him I was driving over to pick up my girlfriend to go to the movies. I roll into the driveway and the garage door was open and inside was a ’69 Mustang, parts strewn everywhere and a oil covered, greasy, and thoroughly pissed off man underneath said car. He was trying to get something unbolted but was struggling to hold the part and operate the ratchet at the same time. I made note of said struggle and jumped underneath to help him. I figured I would give him a hand, then get up and meet my girlfriend and head out. But, we ended up getting along pretty well and I had lost track of time and before I knew it 2 hours had passed. During this time, my girlfriend came out to find me working with her dad underneath this car and she just let it be and brought us some sandwiches and sweet tea. She was more than happy to skip the movie date because she saw I was enjoying myself and her dad was enjoying the help. Im gonna marry this girl and hopefully one day that car will become ours!” Source
Eagle Scouts For Life
“My father-in-law was really touchy around me, and you could see he wasn’t really sure about the interloper in his daughter’s life. I took him to a baseball game, and we got along alright, but he was still edgy. Afterwards, we were talking in his office when I noticed he had an Eagle Scout badge framed. I asked him what he did for his Eagle project, and we started talking, and I mentioned I was also an Eagle Scout. You could see his whole idea of me change almost instantly. He put in his Christmas letter that he approved of me dating his daughter, and we’re now married with two kids and a third on the way.” Source
The Truthful Dad
“After only dating a couple months, my girlfriend and her parents went on a group vacation with my family due to a couple dropping out last minute. After only a few interactions, I find myself eating oysters with her father on a beach in the Dominican. He comes right out with, ‘I hope these oysters aren’t putting too much lead in your pencil since you’re sharing a room with my daughter.’ I’m obviously flustered and at a lack of words. He follows that up with, ‘don’t worry, I know she is a sexually active woman. She gets her looks from her mother and her sex drive from me.’ That was followed up with a 30 minute conversation of his many ‘conquests.’ I think he likes me?” Source
He Just Gets Her
“My daughter has depression. She’s always been the black sheep of the family; the one daughter closer to me than their mom. She’d rather lay around and listen to Metal than go out with her sisters, and would rather go on a hike than shopping. Still, sometimes she does and wants things that I just don’t get. I think a lot of the quirks come from the depression, and that’s just hard to deal with sometimes. And it means she has needs, and it takes a special kind of person to deal with that correctly. She’s my little girl, and I want only the best for her.
So then here comes this scruffy-faced, long-haired kid. When you talk to him you feel like you’re talking to Plato in the flesh, but his school performance is less than stellar. He has a terrible work ethic, as far as I can tell. He was smart, but I just felt like he was destined to have no real-world success whatsoever. But I paid attention, because my daughter’s not stupid, and I figured that there must be some reason she chose this guy. Soon it became very apparent why. He gets her, and damned if it doesn’t seem almost supernatural sometimes. She can be having a very bad day with the depression, but not long after she’s with him she’s laughing. And it’s obvious he loves her, just from the way he talks to her, and looks at her – not in a lustful way, but in a caring way. I asked ‘Why him?’ and she explained to me that for some reason, around him she feels calm and happy. She said that even when they first met, she could talk to him for hours and hours without getting tired at all, like she did with most people after a few minutes. They have this ‘dynamic’ about them as well. She’s practical and straightforward, with her feet on the ground. He’s thoughtful and abstract, head in the sky. Together, they seem to keep each other in line. In fact, the whole way they operated reminded me of an old married couple. And there’s something just so damned likeable about the guy. You get a sense of honesty, integrity, and a healthy dose of idealism when you talk to him. He talks about how he wants to make the world a better place, and just by the way he says it you almost believe that he really could. So maybe against my better judgement, he got my seal of approval. My daughter wouldn’t be happy with someone practical, really. She needs someone like that, he makes her happy, and I think that’s best for her.” Source
Keep the Boy Who Cleans
“The boy did chores without being asked. Hard to hate a boy who does the chores.” Source
A Handy Man
“He’s 26 and my daughter is 18. I don’t like that. But he fashioned me a wooden desk and painted my office. That, I like.” Source
Blowing Money
“Asked my dad if he ever hated any of my ex’s and why. He told me one of my ex’s would always order the most expensive thing on the menu when we all went out to eat and my dad was paying. My dad and mom turned it into a betting game after a while of which of the two most expensive dishes will my ex order.” Source
The Little Player
“Well, my daughter is four and a half and her boyfriend Henry James is the son of my best friend from college. We moved across the country when they did so we could raise our kids together (he and I are both mariners so a commute of 3000 miles isn’t significant). The first time Henry met her, she was three and he was two and a half and he unbuttoned her shirt, in the back, with little tiny buttons that took me forever to button up. Just a couple days ago, he pulled the smoothest line I ever heard when he said ‘I have a new flashlight, let’s turn out the lights.’ I let that go but about 15 minutes later I heard all kinds of commotion coming from his bedroom and went to investigate. They were both in the bed, a little kid bed with a guard rail so he couldn’t fall out, and they were chasing each other around and around. In a dark room. With my little girl.
I’m not going to say I like the little dude, but I respect that. I was 17 before I got a pretty girl in my bed in the dark.
And now I think I ought to go clean my shotgun.” Source
The Perfect Guy
“Just the daughter though. My dad recently died of cancer but he loved my boyfriend…in his final year. I think it’s worth mentioning because of the two years prior to that my dad saw boyfriends (specifically this one) as only an obstacle to his daughter’s eventual White House run…or best selling novels…(dad had high hopes for me).
My boyfriend: Came over to hang out with him every day after work to give me, stuck at work until 5, peace of mind.
Surprised me by shaving Dad’s head after I’d been commenting that the chemo was making his hair do crazy things.
Helped me get dad down the excruciating stairs and to appointments daily.
Helped me weigh the decision of hospice or keeping him at home with me alone, when it was getting to be too much. Supported my decision to keep him at home even though he felt hospice would be better for me.
Was the first one there to help me when my dad could no longer control his body and would have accidents. Helped me with that without even blinking.
Kept track of how much I was sleeping and came over insisting I go nap regularly.
Called me in the end any time he was with my dad and he was having a more lucid moment and I couldn’t be there.
Assured my dad constantly that I didn’t need anyone ‘to take care of me’ after he was gone, but that he would watch after me for him forever.
Recorded himself asking my dad for permission to marry me and insists I only get to listen to it on the day of our wedding.
Held my hand during the funeral, helped me learn how to live a normal life again.
My dad was so worried about leaving such a young daughter behind, but he told me he felt a little better about it knowing I’d have a guy like that to watch out for me in my darkest times. And it doesn’t get much darker than losing your best friend to cancer.
Love to all you dads!” Source