Last weeks topic was somewhat heavy and this one is a bit delayed (Sorry about that). So here we go…

My baby girl just turned 14 and I’m a bit stressed about it. Ok…

• Yes she is an A student
• Yes she is very intelligent and articulate
• Yes she is somewhat naive
• Yes she’s growing up in burbs
• Yes, she has been a bit protected and sheltered

Yeah, she missed out on the opportunities to have fist fights, get burglarized, serve as a whiteness to shootings, have helicopters fly over her house looking for her friends, etc… So my plan actually worked which was to do everything possible to have my kids not to have to grow up in the environment that I did. So for some, her life is normal, to me it’s night and day to what I was used to when I was growing up.

Baby girl has it so good and I like it like that…

I did my best to frame this question so that you would know with what I am faced… So here is the question… At what age should I allow my daughter to date? And when we go on her first date together am I going to be able to restrain myself from thoughts of what I was thinking when I was this young guys age? Trust me I had no pure thoughts… or if they were pure, they were purely sexual in nature.

I have friends that have daughters that are already dating (OMG!) and others that have daughters much older than mine that aren’t allowed to date and they are dang near in college. Here is what I was thinking:

• Only after this little conniving punk gathers up the testicular fortitude to reach out to me and share his interest and intentions concerning my daughter I would:
  • Establish a formal interview with him and his family – Gotta see his peeps in order to gather an understanding of his families values
  • Run a full back ground check to include finger prints, blood work, etc… – No explanation needed for this one
  • Request grades beginning in elementary – I’m looking for trends damit
  • Get formal recommendations from at least 2 teachers and 2 neighbors – a cross sections validation of character is important in any assessment
  • Call in my brothers (both of them) and we act out (not really acting though) the Bad Boys scene (I’m serious) in its entirety, guns (big guns) and all.
  • Once the above checks out I was thinking that “we” could go on her first date to a rated “G” movie. – Not sure about this one because theaters are still pretty dark even though I would be sitting between the two of them. I cant have them playing footsies of even worse sharing space.

For the record so far she hasn’t shown a “real” interest in dating, but I aint no fool by a long shot. I know that she is exposed to much more than she is willing to share with me. I know that all girls keep secrets. And while it would be good to get feedback from some of the guys, I am really looking forward to the ladies being very frank and clear. I mean go ahead and open up and share what was really going through your head between 14 and 17.

So back to the questions:

1. At what age should I allow my daughter to date?
2. And when we go on her first date together am I going to be able to restrain myself from thoughts of what I was thinking when I was this young guys age?

This should make for a very interesting topic this week. LOL J