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Teen age son dating

Posted August 14, 2015 - 10:00am

My son has his first girlfriend. I am wondering what other parents have done about limiting the time they see each other or how many days a week they can plan activities. If it were up to him he would see her every day but I feel like that is too much. He is a sophomore in high school.

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jonbonjovious

I have been down this road. It's a sliippery slope. I felt the more I wanted to limit the time, the more of a battle I had to contend with at home. What finally worked for us was every other day, and I helped him coordinate an activity--watch a movie in the back yard, ice skating, board games, a TV series party. He realized that with a day in between to plan, he could really come up with something nice that made their time together more quality. It gave them something to look forward to. We set a curfew. If there were times we were doing a family activity, we would occassionally ask if he would like to invite his girlfriend. For us it came down to, "Let's take this dating thing to a whole new level. I have some thoughts you might like.." and we sat down and I talked to him about ideas for dating...for the movie night, we prepared together by making pizza dough, preparing snacks and setting up the back yard with the projector. It was time I loved spending with him and he was still able to do something "for her" without being "with her". 


sunnykathleen

Thank you! I like the idea of including her occasionally with some of our family activities. I have set a curfew and he regularly asks to come home later but that's not negotiable! Thanks for your thoughtful post