My three girls...

There are going to be repurcussions from this blog, but I don't mind.
When I was courting my first and only wife, her father had a ditty which he liked to pronounce from time to time. " My two girls are a couple of pearls, no father could wish for more. But where will I find a couple of swine, to cast my pearls before?"
Now I have three daughters, and I have always said to them that what matters is that HE loves YOU, because eveything will always then be OK. Very occasionally, it works the other way as well, and then things are as perfect as being married actually is ( give or take the odd row). Rather later, I suspect, than most father's have had to deal with it, two out of three of my girls now have boyfriends who I have met. You can tell I'm a dinosaur, can't you? I may say Mrs. Lear also says that my children are terrified to bring any boys to meet me as I am an ogre who eats people. This is manifestly untrue. I only eat them if I don't like them.
Anyway, the two young men in question are extremely nice. I know that's a horrible word, but it is the correct one in this instance. They are both highly intelligent, polite, have a good sense of humour, and put up with me. One who came to lunch yesterday needed to leave at 3pm but was too polite to say so, and therefore didn't leave until nearly 4.
Now for the bit that's going to cause the problems. I am not PC. I believe children should say please and thank you and sit down at regular mealtimes with their parents. They should speak at table and converse. They should learn to read, write and do mental arithmetic, and their parents should help them to these abilities. Teachers are only there to reinforce the lessons from home.
My point is that my girls have clearly found young men who have been brought up in the same way, and with the same good results. It gives me enormous hope for the future.
But I will refuse to pay for lavish weddings, because I believe the money is better spent as a deposit on a house. My girls are earning their own money. They can afford a modest wedding if they so wish. I believe the present mania for large weddings, stag weekends away etc, actually is an effort to show a phony love, which is ultimately doomed to failure. I really really object to the wedding presents I have given going to the other side, as has happened when several of our friend's children have been divorced. And I object even more to having to cough up for a second wedding wedding present. Or in one case a third.
But what I AM pleased about is that the two girls are happy. No father could ever, ever wish for more.