The answer, succinctly, is no. Caroline, much to her credit, approached my husband and I with this serious question today. She likes a boy she met at the nearby high school while playing wall ball up there. We are so proud that she asked us to go out for coffee so she could share with us her feelings about this boy and ask permission to date him. Given her recent lack of truthfulness, this is a very good sign and we will be rewarding her for choosing to be so honest and for honoring us as her parents to come to us first.
But, this is not the time in her life when we feel she can handle the temptations of having a boyfriend. With her many struggles with self-control, adding that of romance to it all just isn't wise. She is disappointed and hopefully won't go behind our backs with this. I pray she will trust us that we know her well enough that our decision is truly in her best interest. One day a great guy will hopefully come along when she is older (much older ) and wiser and able to handle it.
I like the idea of rewarding her for asking. I would not have thought of that part. You are very thoughtful in your parenting.
ReplyDeleteI don't look forward to this stage with my son, right now he's too young, but I know the day is coming.
ReplyDeleteI looked up amantadine today... and then wow... we have a lot in common...diagnosis remarkably similar, trip to Austin, similar meds and a brooding adolescent though in our case a young man.
ReplyDeleteevery comment public? would love to ask some questions. Krill Oil? Seasonal Effect? Vitamin D?
ReplyDeleteMark, If you would like to email me personally, I am at meganbstack@yahoo.com.
ReplyDeleteThis is by far the hardest time of parenting a bipolar child. I'm so glad we are out the other side. our rule of thumb, as sad as it was 'if her mouth was moving, she was lying'. like you, we would check up.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting. We are going through this right now with our 16 year old boy. He is "girl crazy" big time and doesnt understand why he cant date. His lack of self control too is our reasoning. We are having to hold off on driving too because of the same reason. It is hard when our kids see everyone doing the typical things and dont understand why they have to wait a while!!
ReplyDeleteThis is a good one! We are in discussions right now with our son and having to explain to a 16 yr old why he has to wait is very hard! He is very discouraged right now. This is a very hard time in life for our kids.
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