B-day- February 2, 1985 Baptism- October 26, 2002. I don't think you really care when I started going out with my boyfriend..
Hahaha. That sounds like my cousin: August 31, 1996 she turns 18; September 1, 1996 her boyfriend suddenly becomes "official".
Oh..but I've been dating him since I turned 16..it was just a coincidence that we hung out the next day and someone told him to ask me out or die.
Wow. Your parents must be _really_ lenient. I remember that my uncle went absolutely ballistic when Jason sent Lauren, my cousin, a gift when she was only 16. They weren't even going out at the time. And while I don't agree with quite how angry he got, I definitely can understand his point that neither of them were ready for marriage so they shouldn't have even been thinking about dating.
I wouldn't say my parents are lenient, though they are pretty cool. We had a lot of restrictions placed on our relationship which was totally fine and most likely for the better. It would have probably been a lot wiser to start dating when we were older but things happen and the situation was very..well it was different so. It happened and we're both still happy and working on our relationship.
I wasn't trying to say anything about your relationship. Jason and Lauren's turned out for the best; they'll be celebrating their sixth wedding anniversary in January.
However, I have personally seen bad things happen when people start dating that young. My younger brother was 17 when he fell for this girl he met in school. She started coming to meetings and even became a publisher, but they both disowned the truth and ran away together in 1998. I haven't seen them since. So maybe you can understand why I'm a little sensitive about people dating young, and about relationships in general.
Sorry if I got a bit defensive, I shouldn't have seeing as how I totally agree that dating at a young age is not good. That would make me a hypocrit and all but I totally see the need for waiting. Being too young just complicates things and in a lot if not most cases turn out really bad as I've seen with lots of other people. I think you really have to know yourself though and know what you can handle.
And at the same time, you never know yourself, "the heart is treacherous" and especially at a young age you don't know yourself. I'm not arguing (or disagreeing with you), because I dated very young and it didn't turn out well, while for some, it turns out great! It definitely depends on the situation... but I always tell younger people to learn from older people's mistakes and wait, rather than get hurt or in trouble. Because the thing is.. you can get in trouble at ANY time up to the moment you say "I do". So you never really know yourself.