Encourage Dating?

Question

Do you encourage your teens to date?

After say 16 years old. I've heard of parents wanting there kids to wait until they were in college or out of the house, but do you believe dating is important around there mid teens? Please explain

Answer 1

I don't feel it is vital or important that they date in their teens. If they do date, it should always be in a group. To me dating is a process towards marriage, so every person I would date would be a potential spouse, so therefore I only dated someone I knew I could marry. Otherwise there was no other reason to date for me.

Answer 2

yes i agree that teenagers especially ones who are the age of 16 or mature enough to handle a relationship and manage to keep their grades up its important because, not only they get to see what kind of people are out in the world and to see what its like when they get older trying to handle a job and real life situations even though they are just dating

Answer 3

I would not encourage it but i would not discourage it either. jsut be there to support them and help them make good choices about who they date and how they date if they want to at all.

Answer 4

I don't 'encourage' my daughter to date, but I have no problem with it, nor does my husband. She brings her boyfriend over, he is a very sweet kid, in fact he is my friend's son. She is 14 by the way.

Answer 5

I don't think it's vital to their development, but it can help them be more comfortable with themselves and around the opposite s*x.  

I'm not going to encourage my son to date since I believe that is a personal choice.  My mother tried to 'encourage' me to date and I ended up making some rather bad judgment choices since her stance was if I didn't have a boyfriend I must be a L*****n.  And I was sick and tired of hearing c**p from her.

I don't think it's important for a teen to date, but if they would like to then I don't see a problem with it.  I do feel however that a parent telling their children that they must wait to socialize with people of the opposite s*x until they are out of their house is wrong.  That's almost like telling them that they can't have friends and encouraging your children to lie to you.  That's not exactly what they should be going for there.

Answer 6

I wouldn't encourage them to date. They have other things that they need to focus on. I'd rather have them date than be in serious relationships though.

You can't really date when you're a teen anyway. Most teens, have no source of income or a car. If they do they're usually to busy to date.

Answer 7

Dating in mid-teenage years is fine. The reason that parents suggest that teens should wait until college is because that is when the views on relationships, in the environment you are in, changes. Dating gets more serious, and the dating relationships are more about personality, rather than looks. You can achieve a solid relationship in the mid-teen region, may parents did: but it is a lot more difficult to do so.