Parents just don’t understand

In response to Charles M. Blow’s The Demise of Dating article in The New York Times, Michael Smerconish wrote a response opinion article in the Philadelphia Daily News. 

Smerconish gives us another “adult” perspective on the hooking-up phenomenon.  Unlike (I’m assuming here) the writer of the Salon.com article and myself, Blow and Smerconish are married adults and have very little understanding of hooking up.  To them it truly is a phenomenon, whereas to everyone I know, it’s a given.  Should we just file it under Will Smith’s line that “Parents just don’t understand”?

But one thing that was interesting to me in this article was when he writes:

“Who can forget the nervousness of initiating a date? Planning what to do. Rehearsing your rap. Then anxiously dialing the telephone to make the bid.  The concern for making small talk if one of her parents answers. (I actually made notes diagramming the possible outcomes and my plan of attack.)

Although I am in college and my prospective suitors don’t need to worry about making small talk with my parents, the nervousness of asking someone on a date is still present and perhaps the biggest obstacle thrown in good ol’fashioned dating’s face.  Because what it boils down to, is what a boy once told me.  ”It’s not like you can just ask the pretty girl in Astromony out on a date with you.”  When told this story, my friend Jenny looked straight at me and said, “Uh, but yes… yes, you can.”