To the boys who may one day date my daughter...

I value having a vehicle more than having a girlfriend. I might be obsessed with cars just a little too much.

ultraclyde wrote: I had a female friend in High school who's dad was the head of detectives for the city we lived in. He collected Japanese swords. First date protocol was that she would wait in her room until he'd had a chat with the suitor and shown him his sword collection, including a demonstration of how sharp some of them were. Then she could go out. She hated it. None of the guys would touch her!

I had the opposite experience. Girlfriend I dated senior year, her dad was like the head detective for missing persons for the county (very well respected; big urgent cases, they would send a helicopter to pick him up from home). I was treated with the utmost respect and never given any kind of threats. Pretty confident he was smart enough to realize she and I were having sex. Never caught any flak.

Worst he ever did was joke about how with the Thermal Imaging binoculars he had, he could watch us saying goodbye out in the yard so that if the body temps started to rise, he could casually walk out to interrupt us pretending to do something else. Pretty sure that was a joke.

Brokeback wrote: I think this - raising your kids (son/daughter, doesn't matter!) right - is more important than trying to scare the E36 M3 out of their date.

I think this is key.

I hope I raised my kids well. My daughter is pretty self-sufficient, strong-willed and has high enough self esteem to stay away from problem boys. My son appears to respect women, fears his mom, and will unleash hellfire on anyone who messes with either of them.

Any boy that makes it through her selection process, plus the nightmare minefield of hazing my son, wife and BIL will lay down, will probably deserve her .

Some of you must not have listened to the second half of that video. It is most certainly not about "scaring the E36 M3 out of her date".

I never "required" boys talk to me before dating my daughter. Never even asked. My daughter, however (who we raised right and is very capable of handling it herself), figured out pretty early that, "You need to talk to my Dad first" was an excellent tool for her to use to weed out the deadbeats. Basically, if they didnt have the guts to talk to me, they were not worth her time.

She refered them to me. I spoke with each of them (or more accurately, listened). She made good decisions- dated well, and married extremely well.

I was more than happy to function as her "intimidation factor" when she wanted it.

In reply to G_Body_Man:

When I was of age (figure about 13-17 years old) I lived in Eastern Washington where I owned firearms, motorcycles, three wheelers, and one Honda Odessy FL250 (not the van). I could get anywhere I needed to go, I could buy as and ammo, and I made $8.50 an hour at the local marina after school and in the summer. I was in heaven.

When I was 17 we moved to Olympia, Washington where none of the above could be operated within one hour of my house. Then I discovered there were girls in my classes! I was never more miserable than I was that first year. I had YEARS of girl education that I had to catch up on all in one school year! Then I discovered the Mazda RX-7 and all was well again . I didn't get married till years later when I sold my second RX-7 in favor of an old Chevy Scottsdale 4X4.

I think that it's not really okay for people to be so judgmental. I think that we should be a little bit more tolerant [Why is there such a stigma against paddlers?  Why won't you let your children date canoeists?] 

Paddlin in a canoe?

Lol, that's a pretty feeble canoe - I still stand by what I said back then...

Feeble canoe, yes. But I was glad to hear it again. 
 

I still have another daughter...

Suggested to a friend that they invite their daughters boyfriend over for movie night...

(I am NOT responsible for therapy bills!)

Waaaaay back when I was a freshman in college, a buddy of mine set me up with his cousin.  She was a vegetarian, so that was one strike against her *grin* but otherwise she was OK.  Only problem was I didn't have a car at that point, so I'd ride my bike to her house to see her.  Her stepdad, a really nice but thoroughly clueless fellow, would lend me his Honda Civic to take her out on dates.  I don't recall much about the dates or the girl (we dated maybe a year or so, mostly harmless and forgettable) but the Civic was a newer (at the time, so late 90's) hatchback with a 5 speed.  One of my first experiences driving a manual, and Lord did I love that car.  Quite possibly the fact that I had a fun little manual hatch to fling around whenever I wanted to take her out for coffee or pizza was the one thing that kept the relationship alive as long as it did. I don't even remember ever putting gas in it- the tank was always full when I got there.  

Then I turned 19, and bought my first vehicle - a 1977 Suburban.  I think she rode in it one time before we broke up.  Go figure.  

Interesting to see this one bubble up.  It's been 4 years and my girls are now 19, 17, and 15.  Last year we had an episode with the oldest where she had gotten herself a secret boyfriend.  By the time we learned about him the relationship was pretty far along and she was totally under his thumb.

I didn't have to show him any tools of disassembly but it was clearly implied and he skated out as quickly as his ego allowed.

(For those who don't know the story, he was 31, a drug dealer, married, had 3 kids, and a felony record.  I wasn't just being an overprotective dad)

Old thread! Girl I mentioned on the first page is still a depressed loner, she seems to be coping with the depression a little better these days. Nice work Dad.

In reply to KyAllroad (Jeremy) :

I always wondered if you flushed that turd.