Apple wrote: If my teenage son ever called me daddy, I'd smack him.

+1

Probably not till college.

I will just be happy if he knows the difference between dating and hooking up. Too much hooking up... not enough dating these days. I will make sure he has the resources he needs to afford to date (on a limited basis) because, most of the time, the guy should still pay the bills, and that the young lady deserves to be treated with a great deal of respect. Although he's had school "girlfriends", at 17, he will probably have his first real date (in the car, by himself, not to a school event, not in a group, not just hanging out at her house) with someone he just met tomorrow night. Hopefully all the right ground work has been laid for him to have a long future of good dating experiences. We would have let him date at a younger age, but he just hasn't been that interested. The age of dating always depends on the kid.

I am now 27 and have been with the same girl since our Sophomore year in high school. She was my first date and we are now engaged.

So I will let my son go on a real date when he is 16....and the same with my daughter...

I have a 3 year old daughter, and while I can't really control when she starts dating, I will for sure watch over her. Just a few weeks ago I intentionally made a 7 year old boy literally cry by kicking his ass so bad in wii bowling because he told my daughter it was too hard for her to play.

The combination of Fat Hobbit's and Apple's responses to various things mt said cracked me up and made this thread a winner!

As a parent going through that again. I think that I would want to be about 80 and incoherent so I wouldn't know what was happening. So...I guess it would be about 65 or thereabouts. Actually, our kids, all boys, began around 15-16 with varying degrees of success then, and later in life with the opposite sex. I guess you could include me in that same statistic as well.

Swamp Fox wrote:...Actually, our kids, all boys, began around 15-16 with varying degrees of success then, and later in life with the opposite sex. I guess you could include me in that same statistic as well.

ummm... wtf? This sounds like they dated boys at the beginning and moved on to the opposite sex later in life... just like their dad.

Heretic wrote: The combination of Fat Hobbit's and Apple's responses to various things mt said cracked me up and made this thread a winner!

Are you agreeing with me or them?