This third stage is a young lady stage. As the teenager quickly metamorphoses into a young woman, she starts seeing the father as a mentor. Block by block, the father can go about character building for her by setting examples rather than preaching. The father should guide her to first evaluate and recognize her strengths and weaknesses so that she can work on them to facilitate her progress. Believing in self is another valuable lesson that can only be imparted by making an example of himself. Girls with active, optimistic, hardworking fathers always turn out more successful, whether in academics, career or the homestead. Such young women are less likely to seek protection and are less dependent on others to solve their problems for them.

Late teens and 20s is the time daughters venture out on their own either physically or emotionally. The father protector can become anxious and turn overprotective, sometimes hindering her. A golden balance has to be achieved at this stage. His duty lies in making the daughter aware of the dangers and pitfalls that may lurk out there, before letting her venture out confidently. The greatest sense of security a daughter can have is the assurance that father will be judgmental and ready to help her when she needs it.

During this stage, the daughter draws closer to the mother, seeking her out more than she would seek out the father for unraveling emotional tangles. While a non-intruding father is a big help, the daughter should also given to understand that, as a father, he has the right and desire to know and the duty and desire to give a hand, if needed. This is behind the scenes moral support.
Similarly, the father should not exclude the daughter from useful instructions regarding banking, taxes, investments, insurance, etc. Also, if she volunteers to help in changing a bulb or car tyre, the father should never laugh at it.

This stage is also important because it is now when the girl meets her boy. At this stage fathers will say, it is time for a man to enter the daughter’s life. Her father’s shadow is always beside a young woman in her search for a kindred soul. It is from the father that a daughter learns major lessons about the world of males. The way the father treats her becomes a sort of conditioning for her in grading other males.  It is therefore, a father’s responsibility to guide her towards a positive view of men by treating her and her mother with respect, love and trust. Good fathering helps a daughter to have more self esteem as a woman and to have a healthy view of sexuality. And when the daughter is perplexed by some nuance displayed by the new man in her life, the father can help to put it in proper perspective for her. Very often, the daughter is more conductive to seeing the other point of view when it is the father who is putting it across and not the man she sees as the other party.

The father daughter bond, like good wine, improves with age. A middle-aged woman, who has enjoyed a nourishing relationship with her father in her youth, will not hesitate to name him the first in her best friend’s list.