Teen Dating Tips

Teen Dating Back Then and Today

Time flies. You remember it seems like yesterday when you called him or her a baby. Your kids are grown ups now. The wet diapers are gone thank goodness but so is your car in the driveway. You worry and check the clock...

Another clock is ticking also, the biological clock. 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. Yes I find this is something that I can totally relate to. Though they cling to you for the first five to ten 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 fast. With the Internet it seems even faster.

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 only 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.

Teen Dating Challenges

Though I consider myself a perfectly sane human being, 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 teendating, 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 strict with her. She is not going to be able to date outside of the home until I say she is allowed, though she may be able to have guests in my house as long as I am present. I can already hear the protestation. 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. Well that is what I am thinking today. She’ll have a curfew and an alarm on her window if I think she needs it.

But like I said time are changing fast and what was not permitted few years ago are becoming standard and nothing to call home about. But teendating or not, freedom and responsibilities go hand in hand. Will see when time comes. Teen dating will always bring some challenges it seems.