Reasons to Celebrate Having Daughters

There's an old saying that goes "A daughter is a day brightener and a heart warmer". Turns out, daughters also mean longer lives for dads and improved health for their mothers. Here comes the science.

According to a 2006 study, for each daughter a father has, their live span increases a little over a year. By my math, that means I should live about 3.5 years longer! Woo hoo!

While traditional wisdom tells us that moms are great at giving their kids health advice, turns out teenage daughters give their mom quite a bit of health advice as well. This leads to a healthier life for the mother.

Some other benefits of having daughters:

Daughters make their dads more generous. Lisa told us last week about the study that showed male CEO's of companies with daughters pay their employees better than CEO's with sons or no children.

Daughters and their mothers usually grow into friends as the daughter ages. A 2009 study showed that up to 90% of all middle aged women reported having a good relationship with their mothers. The researcher in charge of the study says that the two parties deeply care for each other and share a "strong investment in the family as a whole".

The one study I found that doesn't fit my daughters is the one that says having two daughters in a household usually equals a happier house. My daughters fight constantly, but according to researchers, families with two daughters are the happiest because the girls rarely fight and are generally a pleasure to be around.

I must say that having daughters has been one of the highlights of my life. There's just something about a daughter tracing her daddy's footsteps, coming to you when she has a boo boo or late at night when she's had a nightmare. My little Shelby use to brag that she was "daddy's girl" and wanted to go wherever daddy was going whether that be to work, fishing or just to the store for some milk. I do thank God every day for all three of them, although some days the older ones do tend to push my sanity to the breaking point.