Teen Dating

When your son or daughter gets old enough to date, you get to experience yet another of the joys of parenthood. Someone once said that when you have a child it is like watching your heart walk around outside of your body. I find this is something that I can totally relate to. Though they cling to you for the first five years, it seems as if they start to pull away from then on, and when they starting becoming interested in the opposite sex, you really feel like the end is near. Teen dating is something that parents have struggled with for a long time, and there are no clear answers because the world keeps changing.

Teen dating when my mother was a teen was very easy. She knew what the rules were and she followed them to the letter. She was allowed to date once she was sixteen, but she always had to be home by ten at the latest. When she went on her first dates, I think she told me that she had to be in by eight. Though that seems tough, that’s the way it was with my grandfather. When it came time for her to deal with me, teen dating was something different all together.

Though I consider myself a perfectly sane person, I did a lot of stupid things when I first started out with teen dating. I snuck out more than once, and I did end up having sex long before I should have. My mom made rules for me about teen dating, but I only followed them when she was looking. I was able to get away with more than she had when she was a teen because she had to work and couldn’t keep an eye on me like she wished she could. That’s not bad parenting in my book, that’s just the way it has to be for some families.

Though my little girl is years away from teen dating, I already know that I am going to be tough with her. She is not going to be able to date outside of the home until I say she’s allowed, though she may be able to have guests in my house as long as I am present. The disadvantage that she has with me is that I did just about everything there was to do, and there isn’t much she can do to fool me when it comes to teen dating. She’ll have a curfew and an alarm on her window if I think she needs it.