Dating and Psychology 101

Before there were movie theater complexes, there were little private movie theaters. One of these was situated on the main drag, not far near the university where my dad taught psychology. It had a bay window right out on the street where the cashier, me, sat. I was 17 and lucky to get a job, as the college kids were prefered.

One day a very cute guy bought tickets from me. Maybe I smiled at him, I don't remember, but during the movie he came out and started to talk to me and to make a long story short, invited me to go bowling. I was thrilled. He was in college, in his 20s! My friends would be so jealous.

When I casually announced it to my dad he hit the ceiling. It was as if I had announced that I'm quitting high school to become a stripper. He went on and On and ON, about it: I couldn't go, the guy was sleazy for presuming to talk to me, he was obviously a pedophile, he had a stupid major, I couldn't go, etc. etc. As my dad went on, I did the 17 year old thing: hunkered down and prepared to go out with him no matter what.

Suddenly my dad stops in mid rant and does a total U-turn: "Good grief, what am I thinking? Here I'm telling you what to do when you are a sensible, mature young woman who has shown me time and again that she can make good choices, blah blah and blah." He was so obvious. I knew he was doing the psych 101 thing on me. I knew it the minute he opened his mouth, I was disappointed that he was so transparent. I expected something better, much more subtle, from a psychologist.

Worst of all, I was caught like a fly on sticky paper, and I knew that he had check-mated me. I cancelled the date.
I have used this on my kids. It works really well.