You're in the United States. Unless she wouldn't say yes without her father's permission, why are you asking him for it?

god your a ******* idiot no ones saying that she "NEEDS" the thumbs up from her dad just that is respectful and courteous to ask the father before hand. sweet jesus i never thought people could be so dumb #2 please dont ever procreate

a lot of fmls, especially ones that have to do with relationships, seem to deal with a significant other who dumped or freaked out at an OP for something that the OP could have dealt with by a simple explanation. maybe if more people stopped treating their relationships like games and started taking responsibility we wouldn't have so many lame fmls. deal with your shit! also, maybe the OP didn't really want to marry her, because trying to butter up a dude you know doesn't like you for half a year has fail all over. he was just buying time until she dumped him is my guess, even if he didn't admit it to himself.

It's not about the father making the decision, it's about not putting strain on the family

you are asking her, not her father. you shouldnt give a shit what he thinks. you should have asked her first and dealt with him later, together.

The OP did the right thing by trying to get her father's blessing. For anyone over 30 in the United States, it's still considered the respectful thing to do. But it was very wrong of his intended fiance to dump him without discussing it with him first. If she had talked to the OP, she would know why he hadn't popped the question yet, even tho he had wanted to for 6 months. With that in mind, the girl doesn't sound like "wife material". And her family doesn't approve of him either. I think the OP really dodged a bullet here. No FYL or YDI. Congratulations (Also, for the "screw tradition" arguement: she should have asked him to marry her if it was really so important.)

Well, you weren't dating that long anyway. No big loss. Seriously.

Although I believe that the OP's intention to propose was not as sincere as he would like to represent or he has put far too much value in the father's blessing than is appropriate in this situation. I also think that it is incredibly disrespectful to the girlfriend to ask her father for a blessing before he proposes. Even if you contend that the man is not asking the father's permission to wed the girlfriend, he is implying that the father has some sort of constructive control over whether the girlfriend will marry the OP. The counter-arguments don't work: tradition is not a good enough reason to hold off your proposal for six months; if the blending of the families that was his goal, then why not ask the mother, too? Or the girlfriend's siblings? The entire scenario doesn't make sense, and if my husband had done this before his proposal to me, I would have felt very uncomfortable. Declaring your intentions to her family is one thing, waiting for a blessing before proceeding with a planned proposal is shameful, in my opinion.

Sometimes I wonder if these boyfriends ever go back and explain to their girlfriends what they tell FML readers. Like, if he told his ex that he'd been trying to get her dad's blessing maybe she'd reconsider.

ydi because you are ASKING THE WRONG PERSON. she's a big girl. if her dad doesn't approve, **** him.