Dating
Important Dating Terms
Dating: Two people consider each other to be boyfriend/girlfriend
Going Out: Same as dating
Date: Two people go somewhere as more than just friends. The guy should pay for whatever it is they go out to do, but this isn’t always the case – sometimes the girl offers to pay for herself or for both people.
Good ideas for a date are the movies, dinner, going to the mall, going somewhere in your city known to be a nice ‘hangout spot’, going skating or something similar.
How It All Works
In our society, the typical pattern of relationships is that around middle school or high school people start dating (see next section for details). Some people don’t date until much later in life. It happens at different times for different people. If you think about it, the main reason for dating is to find someone you want to spend a lot of time with, or maybe even eventually marry. If you are dating someone who starts to bug you or you notice you are still attracted to other people easily, you should probably end the relationship.
After people date seriously, after varied amounts of time they decide they would like to get married. Age is not a factor of when you get married (although usually it’s after age 18), it’s when you are ready. However, in general it’s best to date someone around your same age. This way you have interests in common.
Getting Together and/or Breaking Up
Different Forms of Dating:
A girl and a boy start hanging out then it develops into having a feeling for each other different than just being friends
A girl or a boy has a ‘crush’ (they are attracted to another person as more than just a friend) so they ask them to “go out”. If the other person likes them in the same way, they agree to “go out”.
You decide to start to go out on dates with different people but make it clear you are not looking for a serious relationship.
Around high school age, nobody has to technically ask the other person to “go out”, rather the two people just start to spend a lot of time together and talk/text one or more times per day.
Unofficial Rules:
When you are dating someone, it’s OK to talk to and hang out with other people of the same sex. You would just have to be careful not to spend too much time or talk all the time to that other person or the person you’re dating might become jealous.
One person should not do all of the calling, talking, or nice deeds for the other person. This should be reciprocal. If you start to notice you are always the one calling, you might want to hold off a little bit to see if the other person calls you. If they don’t, they probably aren’t interested anymore. It’s OK to ask them if they are or aren’t.
If someone says they’re “not interested”, they “don’t want a relationship”, they’d “like to see other people”, etc., you should realize they don’t want to date you anymore. This is OK because you can find another person you’d be interested in dating after a while.
It’s normal to still feel like you want to be around a person after you break up. You’ll get over them eventually after you aren’t in contact with them as much anymore. It just makes things worse to beg, smother, or make the other person feel guilty. It never helps people get back together when they do the trust is often gone and things have changed from when you were in the relationship. Give yourself time to move on too without rushing into the next relationship.
In Closing:
Take risks, live your life, ask questions, and find your fun!