How old do i need to be to have a girlfriend?

[ponycake]

My nephew is 9 years old right now and he had a girlfriend, the same girlfriend, from like age 6-9! My sister nor the girl's mother were concerned about it because it was just an innocent thing pretty much only at school, they didn't really see each other out of school much and of course that was completely supervised.

My parent's didn't really care what I or my sisters did, they were old already when I was born so there wasn't much supervision at all there. Luckily I always had my head on straight anyway

I never really ached for a relationship or anything as a kid/teenager. I didn't fall in love til I was 15 and I even resisted that at first He was one of the most popular guys at school and he liked me and started pursuing me at the same time another guy did. It was a really sweet, movie like relationship that lasted about a year, a little after he moved kinda far. I didn't have huge crushes before that or anything, I guess I'm not one to get huge crushes.

[tikibirds]

Guys and dating was not something I was interested in till I was 21.

[True]

I asked him "what do girlfriends and boyfriends even do in forth grade?" and he just shrugged and said "i dunno." lol

I am curious though! xD I mentioned all of this to my mom, and she just kinda shrugged it off too, she said she had a boyfriend in 3rd grade but all they did was pass notes and play on swings together. xD

[ashes]

I had a few crushes here and there starting in 4th grade, but I didn't actually date anyone until I was 16 (that was a hard and fast rule in my house).  And even then it was just single dates here and there.  I got a boyfriend at 17, we dated for three years.  After that it was a few random dates with random people in the space of about 2 years, then I met my husband.  We dated for four months before he proposed.  We'll be celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary this May! 

So yes, while I think 10 is too young to have a boyfriend/girlfriend, it's perfectly understandable that they would develop crushes.  My oldest daughter will be 9 this year (we have four daughters!) and we talk with her about her friends and things.  But she still is in that stage where "boys have cooties."

I think it's best to encourage young people to have friends and not date too exclusively at first.

[brightberry]

I was proposed to in 3rd grade and I married my sister to a boy when she was 8.  But... it was all just play.  We understood that because we were kids, it didn't mean anything.  My mother told us when we were children we weren't allowed to go out on dates until we were 16 and held to it.  Now, that's what we tell my niece.  I think at 10, it's going to be hard to tell whether she's just experimenting with the idea or taking it seriously.   But right now, I don't think she's interested at all.   

[spottedslug]

I guess my friends started talking about it in 4th grade. I had a few "boyfriends" in middle school (age 12-13). We held and hands and kissed on the cheek, tee hee! At 14, I started dating a guy which ended up turning into a pretty serious relationship. Several others after that until I met my husband at age 19 (we married when I was 23).

[CottonTALE]

I was also the "weird" one in my elementary years. With a school population of less than 300, everyone knew everyone... And in turn, everyone knew to stay away from me. I was also shy and chubby too, so that didn't help.

I didn't actually have a relationship with anyone until my last years of high school. That was a mistake because the person I dated was manipulative and psycologically traumatizing. Even after it was over, he would stalk me in hopes of ruining my current relationship (sort of the "if I can't have her, nobody can" deal-io.)

But in May of 2011, I met my now-husband at my high school's 10th anniversary concert for the music program. He was 6 years older than me and wasn't scared of my ex whatsoever (in fact, he told me years later that he was laughing at his feeble attempts to frighten him away from me.) We were both socially awqward, and had a keen interest in music and science fiction. We had a long distance relationship for 3 months until I moved to the city he was in for college... Then things only got better from there. Now I am happily married and loving every minute of it.

[True]

This topic turned into something I dont think I expected xD. now I am reminded that I am a hopeless romantic and I love hearing about all these "met at some age, married for so many years" stories. i love it!

I feel like if i ever got married it would be a huge big fancy thing spewing romance in every direction haha, good thing i probably wont ever get married xD it sounds very expensive lmfao.

[Rosencrantz]

My friend has regular marriage nightmares, that's what I keep thinking of

'WHO ARE YOU WHY ARE YOU IN MY HOUSE' <--- me six days after getting married, probably.

[TwistedRiver]

Your son sounds like my friends 8 (9?) yr old. Of course I think right now his girlfriend of choice would be Hannah (Hannah66665) xD
My little brother had a million girlfriends when he was a kid. Mostly he wrote songs for them and sent them love letters, though he did hang on my best friend at the time most. He was going to marry her once he was 18 (he was about 5 maybe when they became engaged xD) Of course now he is happily married to his first serious relationship and the two of them have brought my beautiful nephew into the world.
As for myself, I had crushes by the time I was in fifth grade, even had a boy I wanted to "date" but only had a few serious relationships in my life (all of them many years later) and have discovered that in spite of being a hopeless romantic I have no real desire to be in a relationship anymore.

[CrystalJapan]

Hell, i've had Sweethearts even before i've went to school when my mother used to childmind! I don't know honestly for me at that age it was kind of just like friendship with extra hand holding.

But at the ages of 10-16 i can defiantly see the reasoning behind "no dating" so much un-nessary drama! Even though i went to a fairly small school there was so much gossip, I can see why parents would want to keep their children away from it. But on the other hand it certainly is one way to build character, god knows how I would of handled secondary school if it went for the plethora of love triangles in my last years of primary school!

[MikeysGrrrl]

Aside from having had celebrity crushes, I never really had a crush on anyone except for my husband when we were in highschool.

I did the whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing during school (notes, friend outings etc), it was never my thing though, I didn't really care, it seems I did it more to fit in than to make myself happy.

I do love hearing everyone else's stories though

[Tennyo]

I personally don't think it's a big deal to allow kids to have boyfriends and girlfriends.  At that age I'm not sure if it even counts, to be honest.  I had a boyfriend in seventh grade, and another in eighth, and when I look back now I just giggle at the memories.  If anything, the socialization is good for kids.  It's all part of growing up.