Your parents are protective, and always will be. They want to make sure that the person you’re dating is good enough for you. Chances are they don’t say it enough, but your folks care about you. They don’t want someone as special as they think you are to wind up with a loser. A lot of your friends may also think you’re making a big mistake about the person you’re dating. He or she might be in a different grade, different group, and into different things than you or your friends are might find it very difficult to accept this person.

Before you get into an argument, try to understand where they’re coming from. What your mother and father are all about is keeping you safe and sound. They worry a lot about this new love of your life taking you down the wrong road into drinking, drugs, smoking or unsafe sex. It sure seems like all they’re doing is butting into your business. But what they’re trying to do is keep the person you’re dating from being a bad influence on you, or changing you from the son or daughter they are so proud of. That’s why your folks will care more about how good a person your boyfriend or girlfriend is rather than how you feel about him or her.

The group of friends you have also want you to be safe, happy, and unchanged. They also expect something your parents don’t care about. They expect your date to pass the coolness test. How well will he or she fit into the group? What is there about this guy or girl’s personality, looks, activities or attitude which just wouldn’t mesh with your friends?

Dating someone either your friends or your family don’t like can be a really tough problem. If hanging out with that date means you can’t hang out with your other friends, or you have to sneak around to make sure your folks don’t find out, you have a serious choice to make. But it is YOUR choice and the choice that probably hundreds of other teenagers have to make sometime or other. Read on; maybe WARM2Kids can give you some help!