Rather, children do best when they are exposed to the combination of parenting styles mothers and fathers provide. Likewise, children benefit from encouragement to be independent and to take risks, but also from admonishments to do so carefully and thoughtfully. This is a fancy term for the fact that fathers like to wrestle with their children on the floor. If, during such play, the child gets too aggressive and begins hitting the dad or pulling his hair, the dad instructs the child to calm down or else the play will stop. In this way, the child learns to regulate his activity level and aggressiveness so it doesn't get out of hand.
Daughters also benefit from physical interaction with their fathers.
That's because in roughhousing with their daughters, fathers treat them as fully capable human beings, not as breakable porcelain dolls. A third way fathers help children develop well is that they tend to be more results-oriented and less sensitive to the pleadings of children, whereas moms are more focused on the emotional experience of their children. As a result, dads tend to be more insistent than moms that their children work through a problem, even if doing so causes some emotional upset. This helps children learn how to cope with frustration and to be good problem-solvers. Finally, fathers tend to be more focused than moms on helping their children learn about the world outside the family.