137. Dating vs. Courtship: Our honest thoughts

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Our topic today – our takes on courtship and dating - might be considered a bit controversial by some! You may recall an</span> <a href= "https://crystalpaine.com/5-courtship-rules-and-our-first-kiss-with-jesse-paine/"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">early episode</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">of the podcast in which we talked about our</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">own</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">history involving this topic, and if you did hear that episode, then you may also remember that we have a pretty unique story of how Jesse and I ended up in a relationship together and how we had strict courtship rules set by our parents. We are going to dive into this in this episode and reveal how we plan to approach this with our own kids.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We received a question from a listener recently asking us if we allow our older kids to date, which is what inspired us to do a podcast episode focused on this topic, and as Jesse puts it, we prefer to see ourselves as sources of guidance for our kids rather than as dictators, and with that being said, while we realize that this may come as a surprise to some of you, we actually do</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">not</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">have rules about dating. What we instead do is have conversations with our kids rather than lay down hard and fast rules.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Children need to learn how to make good decisions for themselves, and as I discuss in my book</span> <a href= "https://www.amazon.com/Love-Centered-Parenting-No-Fail-Guide-Launching/dp/0764237225"> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Love-Centered Parenting</span></em></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, it's so important to love our kids in such a way that we are leaning into them and listening to them, doing our best to understand their emotions and their struggles. We should, after all, be raising kids so that they can b