Underage Dating: The Elephant in the Social Conservative Living-Room
This is an extremely good, eye-opening article by Bryana Johnson with the College Conservative regarding underage dating, “the cancer of broken marriages and failed relationships,” and how it sets children up for divorce. Here is an excerpt:
“The trouble with underage dating is that it presents an entirely faulty view of what interaction with the opposite gender should be about. Rather than placing emphasis on building one strong relationship with one person at a stage of life when a marital commitment is feasible, dating encourages young people to pour their energies into consistently seducing other young people at a time when neither of them are capable of making any long-term commitments. Their “relationships” are destined to fail from the get-go because they are founded on unhealthy perceptions of love and not backed by any real necessity to stick it out.”
This is just an excerpt; it is all really, really good!
Mid-Missouri Natural Family Planning (NFP) 
You know, there’s a lot of merit in this article, but I’m leery of taking her equally extreme “solution.” I do think there is a place for dating, and breakups, because a lot of us don’t discover who we are and what’s important to us in a life’s partner until we’ve had a relationship or two that didn’t work out to help form our thoughts on the subject. My parents didn’t let us date until we were sixteen, and I fully expect that our kids will be held to a similar Draconian 🙂 standard. But to say that no one should start exploring romantic relationships until they’re old enough to get married? Euh. Not buying that.
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