Forget girls, just talking kids of either sex. I was reading an article about a study. They said that it isn’t so much the absence of the father, as much as how it happens.
A dad gone in the military, or lost in some tragedy is different than a dad that walked away.
In one case, the kid feels dad rejected them. In another, the dad went away but they know his love never did.
Made a huge difference in the emotional health of the kid.
I'm so glad you said that.
I know a woman widowed young, with three little kids. There are several pictures of their dad around the house, in honored places (the mantel, the kitchen wall).
Their mom --- without being obsessive about it --- just casually mentions from time to time some positive thing about her deceased husband, and how she wishes he could have seen such-and-such a landmark in the child's life, or how the kids used to crack him up when he was with them, or how the child has inherited the father's long legs, his diligence or even his liking for onion rings or, humorously, his clutter and grime: anything connecting to the father.
She says -- and I believe it --- that this has been like the Word of Life for her kids. He didn't leave them: he still loves them. They know they had (and in heaven, have, in addition to the Father), a father.