Would you let your daughter date an older man?

If you knew your daughter liked a guy and he was a nice and caring guy you trusted, would you be OK if they had a relationship, even a non-physical relationship? How would you ensure it wasn't abusive? How would you support or squash the relaionship? How would you ensure the relationship was healthy and met the needs of both partners?

I find it an interesting question. For myself I think that while I can imagine a situation where true love might mean a healthy and positive relationship and I would trust and have to major issue with a relationship I would still block it since it wouldn't work in todays society.

They may be in love, they may be good for each other and they may be the closest of lovers but their relationship would need to be secret which would mean a need to hide the truth from others, decieve people and generally have a constant fear which wouldn't be healthy for them as individuals. So I wouldn't allow it because the external pressures would be unhealthy and unfair.

By that I mean I wouldn't allow a relationship that wasn't legal or couldn't be talked about openly. I wouldn't feel a need to go as far as stopping them seeing each other as friends but I'd likely feel a need to cap it at that but only because a relationship shouldn't put pressure on someone to be ashamed or lie or anything else nagative.