"A few years ago, when I was a sportwriter for the Boston Globe, I covered an NFL coach's press conference just prior to Thanksgiving, when the coach was asked what was he thankful for. He replied that he was thankful for his health (he had just overcome some heart-related illnesses). He spoke of the joys of coaching the game he loved for a living. And then he beamed as he spoke about being grateful for his three daughters.

When I got home, I told my wife Mpho about the married coach's remarks. "What struck me," I said, "was that he didn't say anything about his wife."

"Well," my wife responded, "I guess what my mother says is true: Once a man has a daughter, he no longer mentions his wife."

Whoa.

That was just before the birth of our first daughter, so I wondered if my wife was in fact, rendering an indirect "forget me not."

But in the years that followed, as we went on to have two daughters, and most of my male friends and associates have families with at least one daughter, I've often monitored our conversations, wondering if our words contribute to our daughters being labeled with the woeful moniker, "daddy's little girl."

Here's what I've noticed: With my closest male friends, we talk about the happenings in our families with little or no preference toward one member or another. A wife's job promotion seems to carry the same weight in conversation as a daughter's honor roll award. With other male friends, male colleagues and associates, however, we clearly talk about our daughters (and sons) more often. But I would like to believe that it's easier to talk about the joys and sorrows of parenting than marriage. The latter seems, for whatever reason, more personal.

Still, ask me what I'm grateful for, and Mpho (pronounced mmm-PAW) comes up just as much as our two daughters. I firmly believe that my mother in-law's assertion is totally inaccurate.

Just don't tell her that I said so."