On guard

I was watching a program recently where a woman said she would guard her daughter like a lion. I bet if you think about it as a mom, you're like that too. It made me think about how differently moms and dads guard their offspring. Probably like everything in nature, women are mostly in charge of the guarding. The males guard bigger things - they guard the cities and the villages and the families as a whole, but when it comes down to sitting on that next and making sure no one touches those eggs, it's the ladies who do that. The other night, I was at a father/daughter dance. I talked to a lot of the girls who were there. Now, I knew a lot of those girls but not necessarily the dads that were with them. None of the dads seemed too leery that a stranger was talking to their child. Maybe because I'm a woman. Maybe because it was apparent the child knew me. Maybe because I was in a position of authority. They kind of hung back and watched the scene. Now, a mom would handle that differently, I think. A mom would be over there in a heartbeat, defensive, wondering "who the heck is this chick talking to my daughter?" I know the dad would kill or be killed for his kid, but their mannerisms are different. Maybe we hover more, I don't know. I'm sure the shoe will be on the other food in 10 years when daddy/daughter dances are over and this time there is a boy at the door waiting to dance with their little girl!