Rules for Dating my Children

I don’t know if you’ve seen the posts I keep seeing about “Rules for Dating my Daughter” or “Rules for Dating my Son”. I find them humorous (as they are intended to be), but I always end up with a bad taste in my mouth. I feel like while they are intended to be threatening towards an unworthy candidate stepping forward to try and win my child’s heart, that is not really what I am concerned about. I spend SO much effort trying to teach my children to be the kind of person that will attract someone of quality when the time is right. My child is bringing home somebody who needs threatening, I think the problem may be more with my parenting and the choices my child is making than it is with the person standing on my porch. In light of that, here are my rules for dating my children. . . which would also be the rules I want to teach my kids about dating somebody else’s child:

Rules for Dating my Children

1) Love Jesus.

2) Respect your parents.

3) Be a person of your word. (including the words, “We’ll be back by ten.”)

4) Be sure if I could read your thoughts, you’d be okay with that.

5) Remember, if you mistreat this person, my wrath is nothing compared to God’s justice.

6) Have some self respect and treat others with respect. If at any time my child is not treating you respectfully, you need to let them know that’s not okay. And then let me know. I’ll take it from there.

7) My child isn’t perfect. I know this. It’s important for you to know it, too. Codependency is not attractive.

8)  I value honesty with my kids. Be confident that if they tell me everything, you’ll be proud of how you’re handling yourself.

9) If my child vents to you about how awful I am, be very careful about what you say. My child and I will resolve things, but they’ll never forget whatever bad stuff you said about their mother.

10) Are you okay with someday calling me “Mom” and having your kids call me “Grandma”? If not, this is not the relationship for you.

What rules would you add?