At what age would you allow your daughter to date?

Well, I should say that my daughter is 12 years old. Because of her age I've been thinking about what will I do or rather, like to do when she comes to me asking about going out on a date. I think for her age she has a mature way of looking at the world. So far, she keeps her grades up and handles her responseabilities very well. I've been saying to her for awhile now "act responsibly and you get more freedom to do the things you like" so far, I think its working. Having said all that her first 'date' will be either loosely chaperoned or maybe with a group to a dance or something like that. I think age doesn't factor into the question of when as much as the situation and her attitude and her prospective dates impression on me when she asks, of course I will have met the person at least twice before hand. For me, those things are more important than age because being chronologicaly mature does not mean you are intellectually or emotionally mature.

My oldest is 14 and we have been discussing the issue of dating and going out. She is behind in her maturity as she lived a very sheltered life up until she left her bio-mothers house last fall. She spoke of going out with a boy from school (grade 8) and two days later she was heart broken for the day that he broke up with her. She has not gotten to the point of understanding 'going out' or 'dating' It is still for her a figure of speech and they do nothing more then just friends, i guess its a label of some sorts. I think it is more of a maturity level then age. I do not look forward to the heart break she may/will face in high school and pray it does not affect her education. I think for a one on one date with a boy it will be 16-17 maybe group dates at 15 but we will have to see. Her father still says 30. As does my father about me, so it was offical that my husband and I could date last fall when i turned 30 and we have been married for 5 years together 11. I think fathers are more apprehensive of their little girls, maybe because they remember how they were at that age.

I didnt have my first boyfriend until I was fourteen. We broke up for 8 months when I was 15 then got back together shortly after turning sixteen. We have been together ever since and now are married with 3 children together. Those 3 children just so happen to be all girls. My husband feels over populated! I dont think I will let my girls date until they are at least 13 or 14. I dont want them to have anything serious going on until they are a little bit older. I am just afraid they will repeat what I did growing up. I had my oldest daughter just 2 months shy of my 18th birthday. I dont regret it at all, I just wish I would have waited longer as I missed out on so much. I even dropped out of high school, as I was afraid of what my peers would say for remarks. I just dont want my girls to follow in my footsteps and miss out on having fun during those years. I think many girls want to grow up so quickly and dont realize on what they are missing out on. I want my daughters to grow up graduate highschool and get a really good job.

high school

Most kids date exclusively without parents knowing. If I did have a daughter, I would try to be very open with her and let her "date" at whatever age she wanted, but restrict to what they can do together. Maybe kissing at 8th or 9th grade.

My daughter is only six years old, so I have a long time to go before she is allowed to date. What is it that my husband and I have decided on, she is going to be 30 before she's allowed to date. Now seriously, she is very mature for her age, but that doesn't mean I am going to allow her to date while she is still young. I think that she should be able to drive before she can start dating, so that is going to put her at 16 before she is allowed to date. I think once you are responsible enough to operate a piece of machinery that is 10x your size then you are probably getting to be responsible enough to make decisions with your heart.