A friend of mine began dating a girl. And by “began” I mean, slept with her the day they met.

Since then, he has been seeing this girl on a daily basis. He likes hanging out with her and he loves the sex. He insists that she is not his girlfriend, yet the amount of time they spend together tells a different story. A story that:

1) I am sure his lady friend is reading

2) makes it seem like this little relationship is turning into something more serious.

Yet, as he tells me, he doesn’t want a girlfriend. And “it is too early to have the relationship conversation, anyway. We are just having fun.”

I started thinking about his situation – how I would feel if I were him, if I were her, and just about the whole dating thing in general.

Dating for our generation is clearly a lot different than when our parents did it. Way back when, in the days when they were young, dating was a fairly structured process: boy eyed girl, boy asked girl on date, boy met parents, boy and girl went on a few more dates, boy formally asked girl to be his girlfriend, boy gave girl pin/sweater, boy and girl were officially a couple and held hands (and sometimes necked). Read More »