The first date can be as nerve racking for the parent as it can be for the teens involved. Few teens seem to value traditional roles in the dating scene. No longer does the young man go up to the door, ring the bell, have a conversation with the parents while waiting for the girl to finish final preparations then, heading out the door hand in hand, does the gentleman open the door for his date and off they go. Where? Do the parents feel they have a right to ask? Do kids feel they need to let their parents know where they are going? What type of first date will this be?

Now, teens meet, sometimes with friends and sometimes not, at some public place and often, they are known to split from their 1st date earlier in the evening to hang out with friends or even to have a second date. When the young man delivers the young lady back home, it’s not normal for a walk to the door and an awkward kiss goodnight, it’s a make out session in the car and then up to the steps alone she goes.

While many first date scenarios are occurring earlier in the lives of our teens, the scene is usually the same. Dating is a method of getting to know someone better in order to determine several things; your likes and dislikes, your “type” of person that you enjoy being with, the certain traits about the opposite sex that are attractive to you and unattractive to you as well as other preferences. Dating is a time for discovery; not necessarily the type of discovery that one might think of in a sexual nature, but of self discovery. It is interesting to hear that over half of those who are currently dating, the people this half is dating are NOT really the type of individuals that these people would marry. Those dating today do it out of boredom, to release sexual tensions and to keep friends and family happy. Being single is not an acceptable social norm any longer.

Teens today have become numb to the old “traditional” views of courting and don’t embrace the chivalrous ways of old. Often it is the older generations that believe the younger ones should conform. What about the need to keep up with the times? Who should really be the conformists? Kids are sometimes the best teachers in the world when it comes to simple things. Designed to be simple, the first date and the dating scene today is nothing more than a big party, usually including more than two people of the opposite sex. Dating in numbers is safer, more fun and can offer safety to all involved.



Dating can be a positive and a not so positive experience. There are blind dates and group dates; those are as black and white as they come. But the one-on-one date, where two people decide that they’d like to spend time together and get to know one another better, or in a different environment are becoming as rare as chivalry. Will there one day be nothing left of a traditional date as our parents once knew it? Is that necessarily bad? Will there only be speed dating and electronic introductions until one falls madly in love and leaves their job to “start a new life” with their cyber sweethearts? Who’s to say this can’t lead to true love? This is the direction we are heading. Dating will be as obsolete as Windows 2000, and moving as slow, well, nothing will move slowly, ever again.