Yet, when children are young, parents may regard these relationships as insignificant. If the family must move to a new community and the children's close friends must be left behind, so what? They will make new friends, the parents assure them. But, is a friend as interchangeable as a toy, or is there more to friendship? Why are we so elated to rediscover long lost friends in our adult years if, as some parents believe, they were so dispensable to us as children?
Even more, belittled by many parents is a teenager's (or preteen's) love for a boyfriend or girlfriend. Adults refer to these relationships with demeaning language, calling them "just puppy love," and these romantic bonds are not taken seriously. Parents question the ability of teenagers to know what love is, yet they accept their teenagers' statements, "I love you, Mom and Dad," with full appreciation and at face value. If adults accept that teenagers can love parents truly, then shouldn't they also accept that teen romances are "real" love?
Recreational dating is relatively new. Teenagers many years ago married their first sweethearts right out of high school. These men and women of the World War II generation married at younger ages than their Baby Boomer children or their Generation X or Millennial grandchildren. But education has been extended, and people marry later.