Younger kids would have never met a new date.

Now that mine is grown, she has excellent judgement. She'd probably say something like I would have to her when she was dating. "There's something about that guy I just don't like, but if you end up liking him, I'll get over it"

And I would take that as a valuable second opinion.

Well...let's look at it another way: suppose you did not like your children's new boyfriend or girlfriend. What would you do?

JackieRodzinski

TheInquiringEye

Good point as well. Interesting add on.

Nice rebuttal. But, do we have to decide what it is we don't like about the new boyfriend or girlfriend before making our feelings known. Is it becaue they are poor, they have poor hygiene, bad teeth, too rowdy? If it is something that can be addressed with your child and fixed,would you like the new friend? Depending on the age of the child (under 18 or over 18) if our dislike for the new friend can't be overcome maybe it can be tolerated with reservations.Peace.

I would take their feelings under advisement and find out why they feel that way. But I truly do not think that how my children feel about my partner would be the reason I broke up a relationship unless the children had concrete evidence that my partner was not right for me, ie. an affair, abusive, etc.

As I've not had the best of luck choosing the right guy for me, my daughter and I have a pact, that she gets to approve anyone else I might be interested in. I must be crazy!

As for the flip side, what would you do if you didn't like someone your child was dating, I've been in those shoes. It wasn't that I didn't like my son's girlfriend, but they were horrid together. But I kept my comments to myself, and watched as he struggled through, and I was there in the sidelines waiting to help him pick up the pieces when it finally did fall apart.

My kids are really good judges of character. I watch them with their own friends and they make good choices, do not succumb to peer pressure and make really wise observations about people (I think.) So, if my kids didn't like someone I was dating, I would start paying close attention to the reasons why (I'm sure I would hear them.) BTW, if my dogs didn't like someone I was dating, I'd be worried about that too. My dogs are also really good judges of character :)

In either case, I would ultimately still use my own judgement. But, I would take it under serious advisement.