Dads: if you're worth your salt as a parent you keep in touch with your daughter even if she's long moved out and started her own life. Though, if it seems at times like your former little miss princess doesn't want to talk to you as much as she usually does don't take it personally. It's because she's ovulating. That's what a new study out of the University of Miami claims.
UM Psychologist Debra Lieberman lead a team which analyzed the cell phone records of 48 women in their reproductive years and then compared that to the woman's high and low fertility days.
They found that woman call their fathers less frequently during those high fertility days, in fact they're 50 percent less likely to call daddy. Of course, father's don't know when their daughters are fertile (well, hopefully most don't), so they don't call their daughters any less during high fertility days. However, when the ladies are fertile they're much more likely to end the call quickly.
"Women also talked to their fathers for less time at high fertility, regardless of who initiated the call, talking only an average of 1.7 minutes per day at high fertility compared to 3.4 minutes per day at low fertility," says the study.
Coincidentally the study found that women, particularly those that felt close to their mothers, increased calls to their moms by as much as four percent during high fertility days and were more likely to talk longer.
Females of other species are known to have a built in psychological mechanism that keeps them away from close male kin during times when they're fertile as a way to avoid inbreeding. The study points to the idea that human women may have a similar mechanism.
So don't worry dads, if your daughter doesn't want to talk to you, don't take it personally. She just doesn't want to wind up accidentally pregnant with your kids.
Moms, on the other hand, prepare for an onslaught of calls during that same period. Especially if your daughter just meet a cute knew man she wants to tell you about.
