What is an appropriate age to let your daughter date?

franklin J

As a father; will I ever think it is an appropriate age for my daughter to date? I have a very pretty 12 year old girl. Besides excelling at classical ballet, she is a high honor roll student academically and she is a very good , sweet, child. She is very responsible and my wife and I trust her. She is very social and popular, has been getting phone calls from one boy in particular; and we know that in her circle of friends ( all still young) there are several boys who have a "crush" on her.

She has begun to go out with groups of girls to go shopping; movies; lunches,etc--and we are beginning to suspect these group socials may sometimes be "mixed company". Alas, as I said; we do trust her and know all her friends and their families.

Dates with boys cannot be far off. My wife and I have agreed that there can be no official dating until she is 16 years old; and the young man will have to come to the door and introduce himself to us ( if we do not already know him or his family) ...and to add my wifes comment...NO BOYS ON MOTORCYCLES.

Any other parents out there with any thoughts---I would be interested to hear some comments

Joyzabel

only when she is seriously thinking/elligable for marriage

LOL

stillajwexelder

absolute youngest 14 even though I would prefer it to be 16

shotgun

Damn it you guys the last thing I want to talk about is my daughter dating....is there no other way...what about arranged marriages?

stillajwexelder

shotgun -- are you interseted in your daughters happiness above all things --if you are and she wants to date -- you will get over it

worldlygirl

I have a beautiful 14 year old who is suddenly interested in boys. Ugh!

What is an appropriate age to let your daughter date?

35???

JeffT

Franklin, the correct response to this issue is to shoot the first boy that comes up to the house to take her out. That will let the rest of them know where they stand.

Seriously, the longer you can keep her going out with groups before she starts one on one, the better off you will be. One pitfall to avoid is absolutely forbid something or some one. I have three children, all adults now. Form my experience if you lay down to many rules, they'll just start sneaking around on you.

Mulan

16.................no younger!!!

Sara Annie

It's a good question...My daughter is many, many years away from dating (and according to my husband may never get there). 16 was the rule in my house, and the boy had to come in and talk to my parents and continue to do so as long as he wanted to take me out.

shotgun -- are you interseted in your daughters happiness above all things --if you are and she wants to date -- you will get over it

Often what our children want to 'make them happy' is not the wisest thing for them to have at any given time. Parenting involves making tough decisions in the best interest of our children and very often makes them quite unhappy with us as a result.

My eight year old would be VERY happy if we would buy him a jeep and let him drive it. My daughter would be really happy if we let her eat nothing but pudding cups all day and nothing else. Despite that fact, we don't let either of them have their way. And they will get over it.

simplesally

16........and then my dad would accidently show up at the place we went to make sure we were there. Sometimes I caught him, sometimes I didn't.

One time, at a football game, he tapped me on the shoulder and said "No holding hands in public." Talk about being surprised.

What is an appropriate age to let your daughter date?

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