When I met my partner, we each made a permanent monogamous commitment. Everything else was prior to meeting him. And I didn’t have to tell my parents or friends anything about the others.
No. I was born exactly 3 months prior to the first Boomer. And do you find Boomers horrifying?
I think the most important question is the money. How much money is one willing to spend on a date? Another important concern would be personal appearance and hygiene. How should one dress up and make up oneself? How much money should be spent on personal appearance in order to impress the suitor? How much time does it take to lose weight in order to be physically fit and desirable? How much time should one invest in dating? How long should one wait before the suitor proposes marriage?
No.
Whatever is reasonable for the circumstances. If you have no money, you don’t have to spend any. In a doubt, going to the movies is about $20-30.
Dress for the activity you are going to do. A button down shirt, khakis or nice jeans and nice shoes works if you don’t know what to do.
You shouldn’t spend any money on clothes. Do the best with what you have.
You can safely lose 1/pound of fat a week.
As much time as works for you.
However long you need. Most people take a couple years, but some take longer and some take less.
I agree with pretty much everything here. Except that you should occasionally spend money on clothes. Your date night clothes and actual direct date expenses should be part of your overall budget, which is an important life skill but not really related to romance.
Spending money you can’t afford to impress a romantic partner will never work. It won’t make a difference with decent people and people who like someone just for their fancy sneakers or expensive dinners are creeps.
By this definition all early dating should be casual. Going into a first date with the intention of checking out the person for marriage is a good way of never having a second date.
I am a baby boomer. When I first dated, at 16, it was a time when men and women didn’t hang out that much in the casual way they do now.
Dating didn’t have that much to do with how I got married. My now wife was visiting a friend at my college. Her friend was part of a group I was hanging out with. I invited her to go ice skating, more to keep her from being dragged to an operetta her friend was playing violin in than anything. But we hit it off. We never lived closer than 600 miles apart until we got married, so I suppose we went on dates when we visited each other but it would be stretching the term.
Dates in the old sense were just opportunities to be alone with someone. No gifts. If it was a movie then you just needed to be presentable - not much different from going with a friend of the same sex.The goal is to have a good time and to see if you click.
Excessive cost, excessive dressing up, excessive presents are just going to freak the other person out.