Tips for the First Date

Always be on time.

If the date is to start by going to the house to collect the Datee, the Dater should arrive on time and expect to wait about ten minutes to meet the family.

If the dates are to meet somewhere, being late is at your peril. Often a waiting Datee meets Someone Else while waiting, and since the Dater didn’t show up at X hour, by X + 10 minutes Datee is now on Date with Someone else. Or Datee begins to feel uncomfortable waiting so goes home.
In these cases there is not going to be another Date.

Respect Curfews

If you have to be in at 11 pm you be in at 11 pm. Set the date to end at 10 pm so that there is enough time for a relaxed ending.

Dress to match

Nothing is more ridiculous than one person formal and the other casual. Introduce what you’re planning on wearing when you open the dating negotiation. Saying; “You think a yellow dress with heel would be too dressy?” Or, “I’m going to wear my Usain Bolt Pumas”, are clues as to the style proposed.

If you’re having a perfectly horrible time, usually looking at your watch and saying, “Can we go now?” is enough to end the date.

Always carry cab fare or be in walking distance of a home or friend.

If you’re young and living with your parents and have a curfew, and your date doesn’t want to leave wherever you’ve gone, call your parents or someone to come and get you.

It is bad form for a male to abandon a female at a venue. Call her parents.

Don’t try to pull someone out of wherever they’ve gotten to. If s/he doesn’t want to leave, and you do, bring someone else into the picture. It doesn’t matter who. Could be friend, but you don’t want to go ‘missing’.

Tell the Date you are leaving, and if it’s a ’so what?’ well, this is a date you never should have gone on in the first place. Chalk it up to experience.

As to good night kisses and that jazz, depends. Don’t push, don’t force, let things go without script. Think about whether you want to repeat the time you’ve had next week or forget it.

There are really no hard and fast rules here, just do what feels right.