When Should You Think About Dating?

While there are no hard rules for when you should and should not date. There are some things to consider and think about before you start thinking about whether you should date or not. Your school life, career if you have one, plans for the future and whether or not you’re old enough to date.

There is no set age for dating. There is no rule that says you’re too young to date, especially if you’re both the same age. However, common sense would dictate an age found agreeable by most adults towards teens. Generally, if you’re in your teens you’re probably of an age where you can date. Usually, a good age to think about dating someone your own age is fourteen or fifteen years old.

Dating should be fun. You should enjoy being around the person you want to date, enjoy going out to movies, arcades, fun parks and other fun activities. At this point in your life you shouldn’t be worried about anything that could tie you down.

Some things to consider:

College:

If you are interested at all in attending college, focusing on your school and grades should be the main focus of your time. You should make time for fun, friends and dates but always keeping schoolwork at the forefront of your mind. Practicing good organization and getting assignments done early is a good habit to form for future college assignments. If you haven’t finished your homework and its due the next day, stay in and finish it. Then go out and have fun afterwards. If you promise that you’ll do it after, you’ll come home and be too tired and decide to not do it. Cutting bad habits early will benefit you in the long run.

Career:

While its true that you can absolutely have a career with a family, it is a difficult task. Kids need attention, help and constant supervision. At the same time your husband needs to feel as though he is cared for also. You need to feel loved, needed and appreciated as well. If you would rather pursue your career without children coming into the picture, it’s best to make this clear to your possible dates. Communication is key.

I don’t promote one-night stands or abortions. Responsibility is best learned early. Make sure you tell your dates what your goals are. Don’t be afraid to say that you want a career because it empowers you. Strong women become strong mothers. Having accomplishments will show your children in the future that dreams are attainable with hard work and perseverance. Even if you didn’t achieve your lifelong goal, your hard work will be an example to your kids about sticking to something no matter how hard it is.

Dating is something that should be fun. It should de-stress you, give you time to enjoy with someone you like/love, bring you closer together and build a foundation for your future relationship if there will be one.

If you have goals, dreams and career choices you are striving towards dating can be your number two pastime, but ensure that whomever you are dating or going on a date with, knows that you have big dreams.

People don’t mean to, but sometimes they can make you feel guilty for having big dreams. They can make you feel like you’re aiming too high, that you will fail or that success is just something everyone dreams about but never really achieves. Don’t let these comments get you down. While failure is unfortunately a sibling to success, it’s not the main show. You have to experience failure, in order to learn what not to do. Failure is a learning tool, you will get better every time. Take those failures and take good from them. Don’t let them define how you see yourself, because they don’t define you.

You are not an image of your failures. You are an image of your successes. If you promote your success, learn from failure and never give up; you can achieve your goal. You can also date someone while doing all this. Sometimes having someone to support you can be helpful. Having someone to push you when you feel like quitting. These can all be good things.

If you lack positivity in your life, dating a positive person can help keep your spirits up in a otherwise negative situation. Just be careful not to get caught up in only caring about your date.

Date Safely

Meeting people on the Internet can broaden your horizons, but please be safe about it. Run a background check on whomever you are meeting. Don’t date people without profile pictures, some people don’t put profile pictures up for numerous reasons but going into a date blind can land you in trouble. If you think asking for birth dates, full names and state of birth is going to make you less attractive to date, don’t worry about it. If someone gets peeved that you are running a background check on him or her, consider it an early warning.

Stay away from people who get upset about background checks.

If you’re a teenager going out with someone from your school, go out in groups. Don’t walk home alone with someone you don’t know well. If your friends leave you with your date and you don’t know him too well, call your parents and have them come to get you wherever you are. If you’re in a business stay by the register until your parents arrive. Better to go home alive then to trust someone you don’t know and have something bad happen.

If you and a group of friends are going out make a promise to each other that you’ll stay together. Let your parents know where you will be. If something goes wrong, you’ll be grateful they knew where you were.

I know it may seem like you have very little freedom, or you’re sure you can take care of yourself and I’m sure you could. Even adults need help from time to time. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Have fun, date safe and happy writing!

Some safe online dating apps/websites:

MATCH, EHARMONY and CHRISTIAN MINGLE. These three websites encourage background checks, have full profiles, are paid websites and have pretty good sorting systems.