"Fatherhood. It's a beautiful thing. Unless you have teenage girls. Teenage daughters have the uncanny ability to instantly change a father's level of self-assuredness. I have two girls, one is 13 and the other is 12. In the span of six months I went from being the coolest man on the planet to the guy who is no longer allowed to answer his home phone.

Please don't misunderstand, I love my children dearly. In fact, as any good father, I would do anything for them. Which is why I sit idly by as they put on enough mascara to camouflage a parade of pigmy elephants before heading off to school each morning. My friends ask me why I let them put on make-up. I tell them if they don't get it, they're in for a rough ride.

You see, I became a father when I was 20 years old. I'm now 33. Most of my friends are just becoming parents. It's the upside to having children when you're entirely too young to know better. At a time when couples my age are only acquainting themselves with the idea of diapers, I'm a seasoned veteran. I can walk into a room full of crying babies and have them changed, fed and quoting Voltaire by snack time.

So when my friends lecture me on the fact I let my girls wear make-up to school, I politely listen to their point of view. Their hearts are in the right place, but they're missing the bigger picture. In 13 years of parenting I've learned a few things. One of the most important lessons is that a father should let his girls express themselves as they grow into young ladies. And regardless of whether or not my friends agree with me, they cannot argue with the results.

Both of my daughters are on the honor roll, they do their homework without being asked, and they are respectful to adults and kind to their peers. So when my girls ask me to stay up a half an hour late on a week night, or to play on the computer for a few hours, or even to wear make-up to school, I let them do it. While it can be somewhat disconcerting to see my young ladies walk out of the house with a little too much eyeshadow on, I realize that their world is much different than my own. In the end, we teach our children to be kind and wise. Then we must give them the freedom to choose. Our fears should not dictate their path in life."