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At what age do (or will) you let your kids date? I haven't had to concern myself with this yet, but recently, another friend of mine had to. So, who has had to go through this, and what do you do?

30 LOL!

This is a big issue with my 15 year old and me. There are two different types of dating. The 1st one is to have a boy...or a parent and that boy come to the house, they come in and we meet them, they leave with your daughter and go to dinner and/or a movie and return by curfew. The 2nd being this highschool ritual that seems to be the in thing of dating; by description being two people are dating,(although they never really 'go' anywhere) and they hold hands and makeout (and more) as much as possible. The second is not allowed for my kids. My 15 year old wants to date and wants me to give her an 'age' when she can...I have told her when she is in 11th grade,(16 1/2), she can go on a date but this thing of going out with boys at school is ridiculous. If my daughter is going to 'go out' with someone we are going to meet him. I just can't see our dinner conversations as, "So, sweetheart who are you making out with this week??"

I really dread this day and am happy it is quite a few years away! I will discourage my children from dating any one person in high school. My plan is to expose them to the world by traveling with them to many fun and exciting places in the USA and internationally. Hopefully this will open the world up for them and they will not feel that high school is their entire universe. I will try to teach them that the traits that makes one popular in high school does not always transfer well to grown up life after high school..ugh I dread it! I do know that even if they are seeming not to listen, I should keep talking as it will be my voice they hear when they are about to do something silly. I still hear my mother's voice .

well we can all say what we will do but until we are faced with it, it's all talk...

my 15 year old daughter's first boyfriend was my best friend's son about a year and a half ago. he's like my kid anyway so that was no big deal. we took them wherever they went and really the only change was they both cleaned up a lot nicer...

now we have always said that she absolutely could not date until she was 16. but here's the kicker, do we want her to be open and honest with us or do we want her to sneak around and try to fool us? she started "seeing" a boy a couple of months ago, great kid. great family. but he was 16, she was 15 and gasp the thought, he could drive. we did things as a family a couple of times, school events, football games, stuff like that. both mommies were there with eyes wide open. then they hit us up to go to the movies. what to do what to do...we compromised. they made it a double date, i dropped the girls off and the boy, god love him, knew how to get to this moms heart. he invited her little brother...

i think the most important thing to remember with teenagers is to be flexible. this is so hard for me. my mother was not, could not be flexible. it was just not in her genetic makeup, and i missed out on a lot of fun in life. finally dad gave in and let me go to my senior prom...if that gives you an idea. but i don't want to be the kind of mom that doesn't care what their kid is doing either, so i try to not to put specifics or time tables on her. let me know what you want to do and we'll talk about it and decide together. sometimes we don't agree and dear sweet step dad comes in and saves the day, usually by taking her side and reminding me what i wanted to do when i was her age...

breathe and be able to bend...that's my goal in life while raising a teenage girl!

I'm happy that I won't have to be dealing with this for another couple (hopefully 10-15 years)! I'll have a hard time telling my boys not to get serious about dating someone in high school considering hubby and I started dating when we were 17. I can only hope that they'll feel that they can be open and honest about any relationships that they may be a part of. ... And I hope that I raise them good so they'll respect any girls they date and treat them right.