Although the glossy dust jacket blurbs and tributes to Bill Hybels, Gary Smalley, Steve Green, and Orel Hershiser suggest otherwise, I think She Calls Me Daddy merits attention, but not the fuss suggested by the cover and dust jacket.
The author, a former marketing and publishing executive and now head of a talent agency, is the father of two grown daughters who apparently turned out very well. She Calls Me Daddy is Wolgemuth's sincere and often amusing collection of wit, wisdom, anecdotes, and practical suggestions about a father's special relationship and obligations to a daughter.
Wolgemuth offers seven areas in which a father of a "complete" daughter must give special emphasis. These are protection, conversation, affection, discipline, laughter, faith, and conduct.
Among the many likable parts is Wolgemuth's clear tribute to the usefulness of spanking, in an age when some would like to demonize or even criminalize this time-tested resource for the public good. His point will resonate well with anyone who rightly objects to the ignorant or worse, deliberate confusion in terminonogy between "spanking" for discipline and "hitting" for revenge.
Particularly helpful aspects of the book include his inclusion of tested, practical family games and activities that contribute to healthy development. For example, in an effort to encourage self-discipline, Wolgemuth family members reported every evening at the supper table one tempting thing they each said no to during the day. Wolgemuth also provides a helpful checklist summary of his main points at the end of each chapter.
A little too often for most readers' patience, the author includes long illustrations or amusing anecdotes only tenuously connected to his point, as though his editor felt a need to bulk up an otherwise slim chapter.
She Calls Me Daddy is a cute read. For baby boomer fathers who weren't them selves victims of Benjamin Spock and other unnatural family disasters, much of what Wolgemuth says may seem commonplace. Unfortunately, evidence in the church foyer suggests that a huge part of a generation must relearn some of the common sense that guided thoughtful, godly parenting through the ages. Wolgemuth's book is a good way to start
