Dating in The 21st Century

When you have teenagers, you eventually,  at some point have to deal with the interactions of male and female.  Long gone are the days of skateboarding for four straight hours or choreographing dances for hours with your friend in front of the bedroom mirror.  The girls become boy crazy and the boys are well, you know.  The wife and I told our oldest that he couldn’t date or have a girlfriend until sixteen years of age.  Why this date?  We have no idea.  It just sounded like a good milestone if you know what I mean.  Well, he wasn’t satisfied with that and went out and got himself a girlfriend at fifteen.  It immediately brought me back to my high school days and unpleasant interactions with my parents in regards to dating and girlfriends.  My gut reaction told me that just because we’re not ready doesn’t mean he’s not ready and we need to go on his time table and not ours.  I am happy with that decision thus far and I think it was right on.

That girlfriend came and went.  A year has passed and now we have a new young lady on the horizon.  However, things are a bit different this time because they’re driving!  I remember the days of driving around with my girlfriend.  Is this not a right of passage in America?  Cruising the streets on Saturday night with your hottie snuggled up against you.  Well, not anymore.  This wonderful thing called the government has intruded into our lives once again.  Please spare yourself from sending me emails on teen driving safety.  You can’t have a passenger in the car until your seventeen.  I personally think this stinks for the kids and I know there are a lot of people who disagree with me.  This sure doesn’t deter the kids.  They don’t know any better.  It is actually very cute to watch my son drive off and his girlfriend follow right behind in her car.  A lot of gas is being burned, but who cares about air quality. 

The driving laws have actually changed things more than you think.  We are delaying responsibility, accountability, and discipline another year.  It’s what I call the pampering of America.  It has also caused a lot of temptation and peer pressure onto the teen driver to take on passengers.  It can put families that were on good terms with eachother into a difficult spot based on your personal feelings on the whether the law is right or not.  “Why can’t my daughter just ride with your daughter to soccer practice?”  It’s against the law that’s why.  I see lots of teens that have no interest in getting their driver’s license.  I have even seen parents discourage their teens from driving.  I don’t have any data but I would put money on the government influencing people’s thoughts over the years and subtly changing the laws slow enough that no one notices because we all only have our teens for a handful of years anyways and we’re off to other things by the time these events are upon us.

The most bizarre invention I’ve heard of is the “group date.”  Where you never have a boyfriend or girlfriend or date anyone and a group of people just hang out.  It’s great to hang out and you can always find someone to hang out with, but eventually there needs to be one on one interactions between the sexes.  They need to learn how to cope and deal with the opposite sex in a one on one setting where their beliefs and upbringing can be tested, where temptation is resisted or given into, where that fine line between fun and flirtatious and inappropriate is found and mommy and daddy or Uncle Sam can’t be in the back seat of the car saying don’t do that.  Can pop culture be imitating society with the Lady Gaga generation, androgynous metrosexuals?  I hope not, all in the spirit of teaching these youngsters to be ladies and gentlemen.

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