- Joined
- Oct 14, 2006
- Messages
- 15,349
- Likes
- 0
- Points
- 36
David Beckham recently described a situation where he chaparoned his 14 year old son's date to a sushi restaurant. He said he sat about 5 tables away to "keep an eye" on his son.
What does everyone think of this? Is it fair? I think in a lot of areas/cultures it's obviously considered normal, but it certainly wasn't when I was 14 here in NY and probably isn't now in LA.
I definitely understand why other parents would do this, and for religious/moral reasons I'd expect a certain demographic to do it, but I think if I didn't trust my 14 year old to eat dinner with someone they were romantically interested in alone, I just wouldn't let them go.
Did your parents chaperone dates? At what age? Would/have you done it? What do you think of Beckham's actions.
At 14 I had little to no interest in dating. I went to parties, movies, the mall, etc. with friends of both sexes (sometimes just one other boy) and can not for a second picture my parents there to supervise! We never did anything wrong or got into trouble - I was far from sexually active at that age as were nearly all my friends, the worst thing we ever did was maybe trespass to take a short cut to the movie theater or something. But I never would have been comfortable if my parents were watching, I would have viewed it as a huge breach of trust and it would have crushed my self esteem and my social life. Maybe I'd have felt differently if I grew up where this was normal or expected it growing up.
I can't definitely appreciate Beckham's involvement with his son, but I feel like for a kid growing up in the LA spotlight a better choice might have been simply meeting the girl's parent's first, requesting she spend time with the family, discussing what's expected of their son as he starts dating, or even hanging out in the area/sitting in the car with a book instead of being on top of them IN the restaurant.
What does everyone think of this? Is it fair? I think in a lot of areas/cultures it's obviously considered normal, but it certainly wasn't when I was 14 here in NY and probably isn't now in LA.
I definitely understand why other parents would do this, and for religious/moral reasons I'd expect a certain demographic to do it, but I think if I didn't trust my 14 year old to eat dinner with someone they were romantically interested in alone, I just wouldn't let them go.
Did your parents chaperone dates? At what age? Would/have you done it? What do you think of Beckham's actions.
At 14 I had little to no interest in dating. I went to parties, movies, the mall, etc. with friends of both sexes (sometimes just one other boy) and can not for a second picture my parents there to supervise! We never did anything wrong or got into trouble - I was far from sexually active at that age as were nearly all my friends, the worst thing we ever did was maybe trespass to take a short cut to the movie theater or something. But I never would have been comfortable if my parents were watching, I would have viewed it as a huge breach of trust and it would have crushed my self esteem and my social life. Maybe I'd have felt differently if I grew up where this was normal or expected it growing up.
I can't definitely appreciate Beckham's involvement with his son, but I feel like for a kid growing up in the LA spotlight a better choice might have been simply meeting the girl's parent's first, requesting she spend time with the family, discussing what's expected of their son as he starts dating, or even hanging out in the area/sitting in the car with a book instead of being on top of them IN the restaurant.